BusinessWest Staff, Author at BusinessWest

Pitching In for the Red Cross

In response to the storms and tornadoes that caused massive destruction in Western Mass. on June 1, Big Y World Class Markets responded by hosting a donation program in all 58 Massachusetts and Connecticut stores. Big Y World Class Markets collected donations from customers and employees resulting in a grand total of $141,882.64 for American Red Cross Disaster Relief. Funds were raised through a special in-store customer/employee donation program and from employees in all other Big Y locations, from the Store Support Center to distribution centers. This gift includes a matching gift of $50,000 provided by Big Y Foods, with $10,000 each from Donald and Michele D’Amour and Charles and Elizabeth D’Amour. The community and employee donations along with the personal contributions by the D’Amour family will be utilized in support of the ongoing local relief efforts in these devastated communities and the many people affected by the natural disaster. A formal check presentation to the American Red Cross of Pioneer Valley was held on July 28. From left are Donald and Michele D’Amour; Rick Lee, executive director for the Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter; and Elizabeth and Charles D’Amour.

A ‘Green’ Grand Opening

As part of the grand-opening celebration of PeoplesBank’s new LEED-registered branch in West Springfield, Douglas Bowen, president and CEO of PeoplesBank, cuts the ribbon to officially open the office. On hand are, from left, Sheila Goodwin, Barbara Bernard, West Springfield Mayor Ed Gibson, Bowen, Melissa Richter, and Stacy Sutton. Also, more than 100 children participated in the PeoplesBank free child ID event at the grand opening. Below, Yahaira Guzman (left), head teller from the bank’s St. James office, and Maggie Serrano, PeoplesBank teller supervisor, help collect information from the children to complete their Child ID Kit.

Getting a Good Read

In June, Susan Jaye-Kaplan, co-founder and president of Link to Libraries, was one of five individuals from across New England recognized as a New England Patriots 2011 Community MVP Award winner. She was honored for her work with Link to Libraries, which has, since its creation, collected and distributed more than 27,000 books to area nonprofits and public elementary schools in underserved communities in Western Mass. and Connecticut. To commemorate that achievement, former Patriots running back Patrick Pass visited the Springfield Boys & Girls Club on July 19 to read to a group of 35 third- and fourth-grade students (some of which are enrolled in the Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative), and present Kaplan with a check to Link to Libraries for $10,000 to further the work of that organization.

Lymtech Cuts the Ribbon

On July 15, The John R. Lyman Co. staged an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for its Lymtech Scientific division at its new location on Westover Road in Chicopee. Elected officials, local business leaders, and company employees were all on hand to participate in the ceremony. Third-generation owner Bill Wright said, “I am delighted to continue our commitment to Chicopee and to our local workforce. We have been manufacturing in this area for 105 years and hope to continue for many generations to come.” The family company boasts several second-generation employees on its payroll and even some third-generation workers as well. From left are: Gail Sherman, director of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce; Michael Burzynski of Lymtech; Mike Ciolek, president of Associated Builders; Dawn Creighton, representing Associated Industries of Mass.; Anita Wright of Lymtech; state Rep. Joe Wagner; Wright; Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette; state Sen. Mike Knapik; and state Rep. James Welch.

Giving Credit Where It’s Due

Law Sections

Businesses Must Take the Necessary Steps to Protect Themselves

Peter Shrair

The Great Recession taught many of us a number of lessons in dealing with our own business and that of our customers. As the businesses that survived the recession learned, in addition to monitoring expenses and trying to carefully guard scarce resources, there are protocols that can be implemented on a regular basis to protect ourselves.
One such instrument is a commercial credit application. This article is not intended to discuss consumer credit transactions; rather, it is simply trying to elaborate on some of the mechanisms that might be used in a commercial setting.
Most entrepreneurs know that two types of credit are available — secured credit and trade credit. Secured credit is typically borrowing from a bank or other institutional lender, which places a lien on business assets and provides a business with working capital or term debt for equipment and other asset acquisition. The majority of credit, however, is trade credit from one business to another. Trade credit is an unsecured promise to pay for the delivery of goods or services.
Most businesses decide on an informal basis what credit terms to provide to their various customers. In order to do this effectively, many use credit-reporting services, and others employ informal procedures they have developed and implemented over time. This writer advocates that a complete credit application should be had from all trade creditors, which can provide information that could prove critical in determining whether to extend credit, how much credit to extend, and what to do if there is a default in payment.
Generally, on a credit application you want to start with the exact name of the account debtor. Whether it is a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, or an individual, you should be careful to specify its correct name. Oftentimes, businesses use a ‘trade name,’ and you should look at the secretary of state’s Web site to verify the correct entity name. The credit application should not be done in the trade name. Further, a responsible person in your organization should review each credit application prior to any credit being extended.
Under the credit application, I would recommend obtaining information as to the owner of the real estate, as well as the owner of any equipment. It is helpful to obtain bank-account information because you have the ability at times to attach certain bank accounts prior to judgment if a default occurs.
In Massachusetts, as in most states, legal fees are the responsibility of each party unless the rule has been varied by contract or statute. As such, you generally want to include a sentence such as, “the undersigned agrees to pay all costs of collection, including reasonable counsel fees if any invoice or other obligation is past due.” By having a representative of the customer sign the credit application and agree to these terms prior to extending credit (not simply placing them on an invoice), you have a better chance that you will be awarded counsel fees if a collection action is started.
You may wish to include terms for service charges as well, and these would also need to be stated in your terms and conditions.
Often, you may be able to secure a guarantee whereby an owner of a business will become personally responsible for the debts of his or her company. This becomes a bargaining consideration and could prove useful. Again, you want to be cautious that the person who executes the personnel guarantee is not a salesman, but rather the owner of the business.
Some companies that extend large amounts of credit or sell large pieces of equipment actually take a security interest in the items being sold. This, too, can be accomplished through a credit application if a security agreement has been included.
If you are operating in the state of Connecticut, then it is imperative that you include the so-called Connecticut pre-judgment waiver paragraph in your document, which allows you to attach assets without notice in certain cases.
If you use general terms and conditions, you want to be sure that an account debtor has agreed to them, and I would advocate that these general terms and conditions also be placed directly on the credit application.
While this article is intended to simply be a brief overview of some of the protections afforded with a credit application, you should remember that the application can be as large or small as necessary to fulfill the needs of your business in determining the critical questions outlined above.

Peter Shrair is managing partner of the Springfield-based law firm Cooley Shrair; (413) 781-0750.

Lessons from the Wal-Mart Case

Law Sections

Massive Employee Class Actions Are More Difficult to Maintain

By AMY B. ROYAL, Esq. and BENJAMIN A. BRISTOL, Esq.

Amy Royal

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision that halted the Dukes v. Wal-Mart 11-year litigation saga appears to signal an end to certain types of employee class actions.
A class action is a lawsuit that is brought by an individual plaintiff, or small group of individual plaintiffs, who represent a larger group of plaintiffs. Many in the media have reported that this decision will frustrate a majority of class actions. However, in reality, this decision will likely have a much narrower scope, and may prove effective only against class actions involving a very large number of plaintiffs.
In the Dukes case, 1.5 million female employees and ex-employees of Wal-Mart — the “nation’s largest private employer,” according to Justice Antonin Scalia — from across the country claimed that their local managers, who had discretion in making pay and promotion decisions, favored men in making those decisions, and that such actions had an unlawful, disparate impact on women in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The female workers claimed that they were entitled to various forms of relief, including back pay and punitive damages. The workers claimed that the discrimination was common to all female employees at Wal-Mart due to a strong and uniform corporate culture that permits bias against women and infects the discretionary decision-making of every Wal-Mart manager. The class initially received certification at the federal trial-court level, which was then affirmed in the appellate court.

Benjamin Bristol

The general question before the Supreme Court was whether this ‘class’ of 1.5 million female workers had enough facts in common to join together as a legal class to sue Wal-Mart. The court concluded that it did not.
Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governs class certification and provides that a party seeking class certification must demonstrate the following:
• the class is so numerous that joinder is impracticable;
• there are questions of law and fact common to the class;
• the claims and defenses of the representative party are typical of the claims or defenses of the class; and
• the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.
In reaching its decision, the Supreme Court found that this megaclass could not meet the commonality prong as required under the rules. Specifically, the court noted that the female workers failed to point to a common corporate policy that led to gender discrimination against all of them. “The only corporate policy that the plaintiffs’ evidence convincingly establishes is Wal-Mart’s ‘policy’ of allowing discretion by local supervisors over employment matters,” the court explained. “On its face, of course, that is just the opposite of a uniform employment practice that would provide the commonality needed for a class action; it is a policy against having uniform employment practices.”
This ruling was procedural in nature, i.e., this particular class did not meet the definition for certification as defined under the rules. There was no substantive ruling on the merits of any of these claims, i.e., whether or not discrimination actually occurred. This means these cases are not necessarily over. Although they cannot be brought in this massive form because of the lack of commonality among the individuals, they could be brought in smaller classes or as individuals.
Class actions can arise in numerous employment contexts due to the abundance of laws that apply to the relationship between an employer and its employees. For instance, wage-and-hour laws can provide fertile ground for class actions because violations of such laws can be committed uniformly against a group of employees, or even an entire workforce.
Some examples of wage-and-hour violations that could form a basis for class actions include failing to provide employees with the statutorily mandated meal period, minimum wage, overtime compensation, or compensation for certain types of time spent traveling. Misclassifying employees as exempt or paying nonexempt employees on a salary basis are some other missteps that may lead to class actions. Such actions may also arise where employees are misclassified as independent contractors.
Wage-and-hour class actions can be particularly expensive for Massachusetts employers because the Massachusetts Wage Act awards successful plaintiffs with treble damages, or three times the amount they are owed, for certain violations. Independent-contractor misclassification can result in additional costs due to the numerous laws that are implicated besides wage and hour laws, such as workers’ compensation laws.
In light of these considerations, employers are well-advised to remain vigilant and routinely review their policies and practices for compliance with applicable laws, even in light of the Dukes decision. For, even if a group of employees fails to become certified as a class, that result may prove to be an empty victory if each class member elects to proceed on their own, and a single lawsuit begins multiplying into many more.

Amy B. Royal, Esq. and Benjamin A. Bristol, Esq. specialize exclusively in management-side labor and employment law at Royal LLP, a woman-owned, boutique, management-side labor- and employment-law firm; (413) 586-2288; [email protected]; [email protected]

Crunching the Numbers

A list of accounting firms in Western Mass.

Click hereAccountingFirmsBW0811b

Wind Falls — Literally and Figuratively

The Tax Implications of Casualty-loss Deductions

Kevin Hines

The significant tornado-related damage caused to homeowners and business owners across Western Mass. has generated numerous tax-related questions. Property owners are asking if there is any economic relief by way of income-tax deductions for the casualty losses that they have incurred.
What follows is a general discussion of the income-tax rules regarding casualty-loss deductions and possible taxable gains. A review of these rules is a useful launching point for you to review your own situation with your tax professional, since each situation will be unique.
For starters, there are different rules for deducting damage losses depending on whether the loss is incurred on business property or non-business (personal-use) property.

Business Property
If the damage was caused to business property (i.e. income-producing property), the loss is the smaller of the decrease in fair market value (FMV) caused by the casualty and the adjusted tax basis (investment less depreciation deducted over time). The lower of the two numbers then must be reduced by insurance reimbursements.
This calculated value represents the casualty loss. Other expenses such as clean-up costs and temporary replacement costs are not part of the casualty loss. You may be able to consider these costs as other deductible business expenses, but they are not part of the deduction for the loss.
In order to establish the amount of the loss, you may need to contact an appraiser (real estate, machinery/equipment appraiser, or other qualified person) to determine the value both before and after the casualty loss in order to determine the decrease in FMV. Documentation (pictures, reports, replacement costs) should be kept at least three years beyond the sale of the property to establish the loss and prove the adjusted tax basis of the investment.
All casualty gains and losses are to be netted in any calendar year.

Non-business Property
Personal property losses follow similar loss rules as business property to determine the amount of the loss. However, there are two additional hurdles to jump through in order to take the loss deduction. The loss must exceed $100 and 10% of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income. By completing federal form 4684, you can determine the amount of the deduction, which then becomes one of your itemized deductions in the year of the loss.
The bottom line is that many taxpayers who suffered a loss may not have a tax deduction since the loss must exceed the reimbursement of insurance proceeds, the $100 threshold, and 10% of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income.

Tax Deferral of Gain
A casualty event may result in a gain rather than a loss. For business property, this often happens when insurance proceeds exceed the adjusted basis of the property lost. If a net gain does occur, the taxpayer generally has two years to replace the property with like-kind property of equal value in order to defer the gain.
For example, if the casualty loss was rental property, it must be replaced with similar property, but it does not have to be at the same location, just the same use of the property (income-producing property). The replacement property cannot be a vacation home, since it is not of similar character.
With non-business property, gain is less likely. However, if someone has owned their residence for a long period, it is possible there will be a gain. Again, you generally have two years to replace the property with like-kind property. However, there is another opportunity if the home is considered your principal residence. Each individual can exclude gain on the sale of a principal residence of $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) if they had used the home as the primary residence for 24 out of the last 60 months and the ownership of the property is relinquished.
Once this principal residence exclusion is used, it usually will reset so that, 24 months down the road, you will again have an additional exclusion available to you. This may provide a unique planning opportunity for some individuals to exclude a portion of the gain rather than defer the gain.

Reduction in Basis
When a casualty loss is deducted, the taxpayer is required to reduce the basis in the property by the amount of the loss deduction. This will prevent a double deduction when the property is sold later.

Federal Disaster Area Designation
For Hampden and Worcester counties, the June 1 tornadoes were declared a federal disaster event by the president. There are a few additional rules affecting taxpayers in these two counties.
First, there will be an extension of time to pay certain taxes and file certain returns to give taxpayers some time to recover and prepare returns. Any returns or tax payments due from June 1 through Aug. 8 were given an extension to file until Aug. 8. There was also a waiver of penalties and interest. Second, the replacement period is extended from two years to four years when replacing property or reinvesting within the disaster area. Third, taxpayers are allowed to choose between the prior year (2010 tax year) and the current year to take the casualty-loss deduction. This may be advantageous for two reasons: to speed up a tax refund and allow a taxpayer to maximize the tax benefit of the loss deductions.

Additional Information
Additional information can be obtained by consulting the Internal Revenue Service Publication 547 at www.irs.gov/publications/p547, instructions for Federal Form 4684, Casualty and Theft Losses, or by contacting your tax preparer. It is wise to consult with your preparer well in advance of the tax-filing deadline so that you may take full advantage of any elections and planning opportunities.

Kevin E. Hines, CPA, MST, CVA, CSEP, is a partner with Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C., with specialties in business valuations, estate planning, and taxes; (413) 536-8510.

A Sound Policy

An Annual Insurance Review Is a Must for Any Business

Corey Murphy

Many new business owners carefully consider what steps are needed to ensure the protection and success of their new enterprise. This exercise includes performing due diligence when it comes to obtaining a well-thought-out insurance plan.
As that enterprise evolves, changes, and adjusts to its competitive environment and growth opportunities, that same discipline of conducting timely insurance reviews is, regrettably, not always on the top of the to-do list. All too often, success and longevity can breed complacency when it comes to performing an annual insurance review.
Yet, an annual review is a crucial component to an evolving business. The need for policy updates and evaluations is essential. If you have the same insurance policies from five years ago, you likely are woefully underinsured or carrying insurance coverage that no longer suits your business. Circumstances change, and these changes may require different types of coverage.
With recent disaster experiences in mind, we don’t have to look far to find examples of business people who were crippled by a local disaster — fire, explosion … yes, even a tornado. The aftermath of such a catastrophe is not the time to find out how well your insurance planning has kept pace with your business. There are all too many vivid examples of cases in which some business people got their coverage plans right and others did not.
While the list of specialty insurance policies is lengthy, a thoughtful review will help you anticipate your insurance needs. Business policies can be customized in many different ways, and there are several additional coverages that can be incorporated. It is important that you and your insurance agent spend the time to calculate the right limits and select the correct coverages to build a policy that will financially support you and your business during a crippling disaster.
A critical element of your insurance program should be business-interruption insurance. An insurance program that includes a business-interruption policy could provide the resources for a business to survive the scenario we recently witnessed in our region.
In its simplest description, a business-interruption policy is designed to financially support your business should it be temporarily shut down due to a covered event.
Should a catastrophe shut your business down, it is a sad but true fact that your company’s bills will continue. A business-interruption policy can be structured to cover these bills along with the lost profit that your company is no longer generating. It also may allow your company to continue to meet payroll obligations while your employees are not working. It can be customized to provide reimbursement of above-normal expenses necessary to get the business to normal operations as soon as possible.
Make sure to coordinate a business-interruption policy with your existing property-protection policy. As an example, check the ‘causes of loss’ covered on your property policy. The interruption segment will respond if the loss occurs as a result of a covered cause of loss listed on the property policy. So you need to make sure to review these policies together. The result of your effective review will ensure that your property coverage will cover the property of your business, while the business-interruption policy covers the operation of your company.
Unlike most insurance policies that have a monetary deductible, the business-income section of the policy has a time deductible; typically the wait period is 72 hours. It is important, when selecting the limit of insurance, to consider your past financial performance, the co-insurance clause on the policy, and your actual potential loss. If the limit of insurance that is purchased does not equal the co-insurance amount of the actual potential exposure, a reduction in the settlement could result. Fortunately, there are optional coverages that could be included to negate the co-insurance clause.
To get it right, take the time and work closely with your agent to find what best works for your circumstance. It is a process of thinking through risk and options, and then ultimately making an informed business decision.
With insurance, it is important to realize that you have to get it right before things happen.

Corey Murphy is a certified insurance counselor and president of First American Insurance Agency in Chicopee; (413) 594-8118; [email protected]

Legacy of Growth

Berkshire Bank Continues Its Ambitious Pattern of Expansion

Sean Gray says Berkshire Bank has become adept at mergers in recent years — not only executing them, but choosing the right ones.
“Acquisition is one of our core competencies. We’re very focused on growth,” said Gray, executive vice president of retail banking for the Pittsfield-based institution.
Indeed, late last month, Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc., the bank’s parent company, completed the acquisition of Legacy Bancorp Inc., also based in Pittsfield, and merged the two banks under the Berkshire Bank banner. The deal leaves Berkshire Hills with more than $4 billion in assets and a branch network of 63 locations in Western Mass., New York, and Vermont. With the Legacy additions, the institution now employs about 845 people.
As part of its overall expansion strategy, Gray said, Berkshire Bank looks to organic growth first — as he put it, “getting the most out of our existing footprint.”
Still, with numerous acquisitions in the past several years — including Woronoco Bancorp of Westfield in 2005 and New York-based Rome Bancorp earlier this year — “we’re very much seen as a consolidator in our market,” Gray said. “And Legacy was just what we look for in a partner. We always ask, do we share a similar culture? Legacy is a very community-based institution, very customer-centric. And because of their proximity to us, we’re very familiar with them and the talent there.”
Michael Daly, president and CEO of Berkshire Hills, said the merger will benefit not only the bank’s bottom line, but customers, through strengthened retail and business services.
“This acquisition results in improved market share and an expanded footprint in our attractive northeastern markets,” he said. “It contributes to our strong momentum in revenue and earnings growth. This partnership enhances our resources to support the needs of our regions and to provide exceptional, locally based service.”

Growing Footprint
Berkshire Bank had been in a strong position in its market well before acquiring Legacy, boasting $3.2 billion in assets and 48 branches in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont before adding 15 of Legacy’s 19 branches in the Bay State and Eastern N.Y.
As part of federal approval of the merger, the two banks agreed to sell four Legacy branches — in Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Lee, and North Adams — to a third institution, NBT Bank, to resolve anticompetitive concerns in those markets. Those four branches, with deposits totaling $158 million, will operate as usual under the merger until being transferred to NBT by the end of October.

Sean Gray

“When we announced our merger agreement with Legacy last December, we indicated that we expected to conduct a branch divestiture, and we are pleased with the financial terms we have achieved,” Daly said.
With 85% of Legacy’s branches located in Berkshire County, “there’s a lot of synergy” between the two institutions, Gray said. When you have someone so close, you have an intimate knowledge of the players and processes. We can take the best of both worlds from each company and deliver better, faster services to our customer base” — especially people who bank at Legacy.
For example, “Berkshire Bank is a larger institution than Legacy, and this [merger] affords us the ability to invest in things like larger insurance operations for our Legacy customers,” he explained. “We have more cash-management sophistication that Legacy customers can take advantage of. With this partnership, we can bring those things to their membership.”
As the eighth-largest bank in Western Mass. by assets, “Berkshire has all the services and sophistication of a large bank,” Gray said. “Some of the larger institutions are foreign-owned, and you see what’s going on in the global economy, the volatility on that front. But a bank of our size has all the products and services you’d need and a tremendous amount of talent — people with large-bank experience — at a community bank with local decisioning.
“So any customer can get what they need,” he added, “but we’re very active in the community and very committed to the communities we serve. Everything a big bank can do, we can do; we have big-bank services but the feel of a small institution.”
Even after the merger, the Berkshire Bank Foundation and the Legacy Banks Foundation will continue to provide charitable contributions to communities served by Berkshire Bank.
“We’ve got our foundation, and in this economically troubled time, we continue to invest in our communities,” Gray said. “We’re on pace to give out more than $1 million to charitable organizations this year, and we’ll continue that very active pace.”
Berkshire Bank officials saw some of those needs up close this year when tornadoes struck the region; the institution was one of the initial wave of companies — many of them banks — that quickly responded with financial relief efforts.
“And, unbeknownst to a lot of people, our Springfield branch was directly hit, and we suffered through some of that alongside the community and the customers we serve,” Gray noted.
The bank’s emphasis on community involvement extends to the employee level as well.
“One of the things we’re most proud of is the very distinct volunteer culture in the bank,” he said. “If an employee wants to take a day off and is really passionate about volunteering for a charitable organization, we’ll pay them for the day and let them out to work. We’ve contributed more than 17,000 hours in that way, and that’s a definitive value; we’re paying those folks, and they’re making an impact on the organizations they’re helping.”

Loan Stars
Like many locally based banks in Western Mass., Berkshire touts its strong bottom line and healthy lending capabilities, even as demand for new loans remains suppressed by a lingering economic downturn — one that might be further roiled by the recent debt crisis in Washington and the downgrade in the country’s credit rating.
“Demand has definitely slowed for much of commercial real estate, and we have seen a slowdown in the market,” Gray said. “But we’re proud that we’ve organically grown our commercial loans by double digits for the last three years,” through acquisitions and by attracting customers from other banks.
“That’s a tribute to the people we have and our value proposition, that we’re seeing good assets come from larger institutions to a bank where they’re going to have more of a relationship,” Gray said. “We’ve been able to to steal our share of business and grow and expand the portfolio by double digits although we’ve seen a slowdown.
National analysts sound a similar chord. “Revenue growth really is a challenge if you are not growing your loan portfolio organically,” Bob Ramsey, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, told BankDirector.com. “If you don’t grow your assets, it’s difficult to grow your earnings unless you are able to do acquisitions.”
Berkshire Bank has managed to both successfully, and Gray said that all comes back to a strategy of finding partners that mesh with the institution’s culture.
“We bring an organizational foundation [to acquisitions] and base them on similar cultures and local decision-making,” he reiterated. “We’re very much community-oriented, and from a financial perspective, we look for partners believe in the Berkshire Bank story and understand the value of our currency and their future value as a part of it.”
And that’s a legacy that only continues to grow.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

To a Higher Plane

Chicopee Savings Seeks to Soar on the Wings of Creativity

CSB President Bill Wagner

Like all financial institutions in the region, Chicopee Savings Bank is struggling to grow in a challenging environment marked by historically low interest rates, razor-thin margins, and unparalleled competition. Despite the hurdles, the institution has managed to grow market share, increase deposits, and, in general, position itself for when there is less turbulence.

Bill Wagner says that the last time Chicopee Savings Bank drew out a five-year plan was as it was making its conversion to a publicly traded institution in late 2006.
It was solid in most respects, he said, but it couldn’t possibly have taken into account the events that would trigger the so-called Great Recession less than two years later, not to mention a string of governmental actions to stem its impact. These steps have brought interest rates to historic lows, cut bank margins to razor-thin levels, and, ultimately, made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for financial institutions to post the kind of solid growth that was commonplace in the decade preceding the crash.
It didn’t anticipate the housing bubble, which was aggravated significantly more than past housing bubbles by the failure of certain types of financial institutions that engaged in the secondary mortgage market, he explained. “There were two years of extremely high unemployment that weren’t in the plan, either, and we didn’t anticipate the unprecedented interference in the free-market cost of money by the Fed and the Treasury Department.
“We don’t do five-year plans anymore,” Wagner added with a wry smile. “That’s too far ahead to plan; we do three years now; every year we do a three-year plan.”
And even three years is a virtual eternity in the current environment, marked by challenging conditions, a lack of confidence among business owners, virtually non-existent organic growth in the business community, and spiraling competition in all areas, especially commercial lending.
In this climate, said Wagner, the dean of the local bank presidents now in his 27th year at the helm at CSB, the goals are to take advantage of the opportunities that do arise, work diligently to create new opportunities, and properly position the institution for the time when conditions improve. Meanwhile, the bank needs to remain true to its mission, be a positive force within the community, and, in a word, be creative.
And CSB is doing all of that, he said, listing, as evidence, everything from positive gains in market share in commercial lending across the region to some new products and services, such as a rewards checking program, and even the fiberglass replica C-5 Galaxy transport plane now sitting in the bank’s headquarters on Center Street.
It is one of three planes sponsored by the Chicopee Savings Bank Foundation in a program to raise funds for a new senior center in the city. Like Springfield’s sneakers, West Springfield’s terriers, and Easthampton’s bears, the planes, with 7-foot wingspans, are themed artistically, and sponsored by area businesses and individuals. The plane in the lobby is called “In Your Honor,” and features the likenesses of Chicopee veterans who have fought in each of the nation’s wars.
“This is what it means to be part of the community,” Wagner said of the bank’s contributions to the program as he looked over the plane and pointed out veterans of various conflicts. “We’ve been here for nearly 170 years, and we’re going to keep on being here.”
And CSB will keep on slugging it out in a difficult environment where the choppy air is persistent and gaining altitude is a real challenge.

He’s Not Winging It
As he wrapped up his talk with BusinessWest, Wagner gave a quick tour of the Central Street facilities, focusing on the C-5 model and the many pieces of artwork hanging in his office, the hallways, and especially the ground-level conference room, which was the last stop.
There, among several framed pieces, are paintings by local artist Ted Fijal of Chicopee landmarks. There’s one of the main administration building at Elms College that dominates the back wall, and another looking down the hill on Springfield Street past the old Rivoli Theater and City Hall to the massive Cabotville Industrial Park, which has played such a big role in the city’s business history, dating back to the days when Civil War uniforms were manufactured there.
The artwork, along with the plane in the lobby, provide evidence of CSB’s devotion to the city that’s been its home since 1854, said Wagner, as does the fact that, while other institutions have removed geographic references from their names, this one hasn’t.
Nor has it struck the word ‘savings’ from the name either, years after most all other institutions thought it prudent to remove the adjective in a nod toward their institutions’ broader mission.
Rather than acknowledge change with new signage, CSB has done it with action, said Wagner, noting everything from the bank’s conversion to a public institution five years ago to its geographic expansion efforts (most recently in South Hadley and Ware; more on that later) to its ongoing evolution from a savings bank to an institution with a host of commercial and consumer products.
And that evolution continues, even in this current, ultra-challenging environment, said Wagner, adding that the bank continues to make solid gains in the realms of commercial lending and commercial real estate.
Indeed, as he looked over the latest statistics concerning commercial loan volume in individual communities, especially in the $100,000-to-$3 million range, or what he called the bank’s “sweet spot,” Wagner said CSB continues to grow market share.
“We’ve been pretty successful, in spite of the environment we’re in, in growing our commercial-loan department and maintaining asset quality,” he said, noting that, in many area cities and towns, the bank is at or near the top in volume of those sweet-spot-sized loans, and total volume of outstanding loans has gone from $51 million in 2008 to $75 million in 2010 and past $80 million this year. In the area of commercial real-estate loans, the numbers have risen from $150 million outstanding in 2008 to $178 million through the first half of this year.
It has been helped in these efforts, he continued, by continuing consolidation in the banking community (Berkshire Bank’s merger with Legacy is the latest example; see story on page 32) and movement away from such institutions and toward smaller community banks on the part of many business owners. But he also credits the bank’s team of experienced lenders that have enabled CSB to grow market share at a time when there has been marginal business growth across the region.
“It’s very difficult to grow as we have,” Wagner explained. “We have a solid, seasoned commercial lending team, we have a lot of technical skills, and we have the ability to service commercial accounts at a level business owners are comfortable with. We seldom lose a good commercial account, and we certainly gain a good deal more a year than we lose.”
And beyond sheer volume, the commercial portfolio boasts great diversity, he said, adding that this has been another asset during the recession and modest recovery. “It’s enabled us to go through this environment, knock on wood, without too many bruises and cuts; we’ve had higher-than-normal losses, but they’re still well within industry averages.”

Taking Flight
When asked what was in the bank’s latest three-year plan, Wagner said he wasn’t at liberty to reveal any specific details — in keeping with the rules governing the dissemination of information involving publicly traded institutions.
Speaking in general terms, though, he said there are no immediate plans for additional territorial expansion, and that one of the immediate goals is to grow the South Hadley and Ware branches, both opened in 2009, which are off to decent starts given the conditions.
Those branches represent the bank’s first foray in Hampshire County (although South Hadley borders Chicopee), and the Ware office represents its deepest move east. It was a common-sense move, said Wagner, adding that the location — near the Wal-Mart that serves the Greater Palmer area and not far from turnpike exit 8 — is ideal, and Ware, although headquarters to Country Bank, is not in the ‘overbanked’ category as so many area communities are.
“I went out to Ware one day to look at a piece of property and went by the Wal-Mart, and the place was packed,” he said while recounting how the journey to Ware started. “I drove through the shopping center and said to myself, ‘in this whole 10- or 12-town area, this has to be the busiest place.
“We thought that this would be the place to put a bank, and thus far, it’s worked out for us,” he continued. “It’s probably going to take a little longer than most branches, but it’s still progressing at an acceptable rate.”
While building up deposits in the new branches and gaining market share in commercial lending and deposits, the bank is taking other steps that would fall into the realm of building volume and effectively positioning itself for the day — whenever it comes (the Fed recently announced that it would keep its interest rate at nearly zero through the middle of 2013) — when interest rates start to rise and paper-thin margins start to increase.
“We’re going to continue to operate our franchise in the best interest of our stockholders and our customers,” he said. “And we’re going to continue to try the commercial sector as well as the retail sector, and try to be creative and differentiate ourselves from other banks.”
Rewards checking is one example of this creativity, Wagner said, adding that the product, rolled out several months ago, pays interest on accounts that maintain a certain level of activity in electronic banking services. It has helped the bank grow its retail portfolio in the same manner it has registered gains on the commercial side of the ledger.
“As a result of that and other efforts, we increased our demand deposits by $11 million over the past three months,” he explained. “This is part of our plan to continue to develop a high percentage of core deposits so that, when rates do go up, we have cheap money on our books.”
Meanwhile, the bank will continue its mission within the community, he said, adding that, beyond the planes purchased to help build the new senior center in Chicopee, the institution has been aggressive in its efforts to help victims of the recent tornadoes.
The bank has partnered with Salvation Army, the O’Connell Oil Co., and Channel 22 to assist in tornado-relief efforts. As of late July, more than $60,000 had been raised at CSB’s nine branches, and through parallel efforts involving the bank’s foundation and O’Connell’s convenience stores, the total has exceeded more than $120,000.

Soft Landing
Through nearly a half-century in banking (48 years to be exact, starting at the old Security National Bank in downtown Springfield), Wagner says he has been through six major bank crises by his count.
That includes the so-called ‘machine-shop recession’ of 1972, he said, recalling that, with severe cutbacks in defense spending as the Vietnam War was winding down, most of the machine shops in the area were hurt, and many didn’t survive. There was also the housing bubble of 1976, the deep recession of the early ’90s, which was particularly hard on banks, and others to follow. Comparing the current crisis to the one 20 years ago, he said the earlier one claimed more banks, obviously, “but this one has been very painful; it’s like comparing a broken arm to a broken leg — it all depends on whether you’re sitting or standing as to which one hurts more.”
Though they were all different in some respects, he went on, the common denominator with each crisis was the need for creativity and cautious aggressiveness to maneuver through the choppy air and be better positioned for when the skies cleared.
This time of challenge is no different, continued Wagner, who was exercising some plane speaking — literally and figuratively.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

A Potential Game Changer

Health Care Sections

Recent Study Touts the Value of CT Screening for Lung Cancer

Dr. James Stewart says the CT study is encouraging, but the high incidence of false positives will stir debate over costs versus benefits.

They don’t call them cancer sticks for nothing.
“If I could pick one thing to reduce the cancer burden in this country, it would be eliminating tobacco,” said Dr. James Stewart, chief of Hematology/Oncology at the Baystate Regional Cancer Program. Not only does smoking account for the vast majority of lung-cancer cases, he explained, it’s also a factor in many other cancers, such as stomach, esophageal, and bladder.
Meanwhile, lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in the U.S., with a five-year mortality rate of 10% after the disease has metastasized. The odds of survival are much higher when the cancer is caught early, but right now just 16% of lung-cancer cases are detected in their earliest stages; by the time symptoms typically become evident, the cancer tends to be too advanced to cure.
But a promising study, conducted at UCLA and reported in the June 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, has the oncology world buzzing about bringing that death rate down through widespread CT (computed tomography) screening of smokers and former smokers.
The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), conducted from 1993 through 2005, involved more than 53,000 people at 33 different sites — all of them at risk for lung cancer but not showing symptoms. The study found that low-dose CT screening reduces the lung-cancer mortality rate in smokers and ex-smokers by 20% due to early detection of cancerous tissue. Many doctors are calling the study a game changer.
“Lung cancer is a very big problem in terms of the number of deaths that it causes,” Stewart said. “It affects both men and women — in fact, a surprising number of women. When I was a medical student, it was rare to see women who had lung cancer; now, there are as many women as men. Men in this country actually slowed down their smoking, and women still have an increasing risk of lung cancer.
“There’s always been this discussion — if we screen people, can we find the lung cancer at a time when it’s curable?” he added. “Because, unfortunately, most lung cancers show up at a time when it’s not curable, when it has already spread, even microscopically.”
A technology proven to catch significant numbers of cancers during treatable stages has, obviously, stirred hope for people with a history of tobacco use.
“There is a population of people who did not smoke but have lung cancer,” said Dr. Neil Chuang, director of thoracic surgery at Mercy Medical Center. “Their cancer may behave a little differently than the one smokers get, but it’s not that common. Smokers would be the ones targeted” by any new national screening protocol.
But the medical community is far from establishing such guidelines, considering the potential financial expense of expanded screening, especially given the propensity for false positives, which — as it has recently with mammograms — will spark a debate over cost versus benefits. But the benefits look promising indeed.

Raising Hope
The response from cancer centers nationwide to the CT report has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I believe that this is not only the best study done on lung cancer mortality, but one of the best studies on cancer screening ever done,” Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, told CNN.
“With a greater than 20% reduction in lung-cancer mortality, there are very few single things in our lifetime that will have such a positive impact with lung cancer as these new screening suggestions,” Dr. Frank Detterbeck, surgical director of the Yale Thoracic Oncology program, noted on the practice’s Web site.
However, he added, “the NLST addresses a very specific population of people. It will be important to continue to monitor the data and evolve our screening and treatment practices in the coming years so that we can maximize the positive impact it will have on lung-cancer survival rates.”
Chuang said screening guidelines, when they do emerge, might first focus on the heaviest smokers. Currently, between 80% and 90% of all lung cancer is found in people with a history of tobacco use.
“Smokers have an increased risk of having lung cancer,” he explained. “In order to get cancer, a cell has to undergo a series of mutations — usually three or four before a cell becomes a cancer cell. Smoking accelerates that process. The question is, how much smoking is required before the risk goes up?”
He said doctors have settled on 20 ‘pack years’ as the point where the cancer risk rises for smokers. To calculate pack years, multiply packs smoked per day by years smoked; two packs a day for 10 years, or one pack a day for 20 years, would be 20 pack years.
“Most people, when they represent with the symptoms of cancer, are already advanced and not curable,” Chuang noted. “Usually lung cancer is caught by accident, but screening programs are a way of catching it earlier, before it progresses. Right now there’s no standardized policy that I’m aware of put out by any national medical societies, but we’re going in that direction in the next few years, probably for people age 50, 55, or older who have a history of greater than 20 pack years.”
One drawback to widespread screening, Stewart said, is the high rate of false positives when it comes to lung cancer screening. “If you do a lot of CT scans on people who are chronic smokers or former smokers, you’ll find a lot of lung nodules,” he explained.
“The majority of them, by far, are not going to be cancer,” he continued. “So, do you biopsy them with needles? Operate to take the nodules out? Follow up with another CT scan? How do you sort out whether it’s cancer? That’s where the cost comes in, and I haven’t seen a good number crunching of that so far.”
And that introduces the sticky factor of cost also into the picture. While an X-ray is about $50, CT scans typically cost hundreds of dollars. But, according to Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, the average cost of an abnormal spiral CT is about $40,000 to $50,000 once additional testing and possibly surgery is factored in.
“Are you going to implement this as a public health policy, and if so, can you afford it as a society?” Stewart said. “I think those questions have not yet been answered. There are a lot of things we can do using technology that might alter the natural history of a disease in a good way, but it’s not really a question of whether you implement these things; it’s a societal question of where we want to put our resources.”
That debate, he noted, may be influenced by a perception among some people — a kind of discrimination, really — that lung-cancer victims caused their own disease, so therefore society shouldn’t be forced to pour too much of its financial resources into helping them.
“It’s particularly painful for people who have stopped smoking,” he said. “Of course there’s a much higher risk in people who continue to smoke versus former smokers, but there’s no question that former smokers have an increased risk of cancer as opposed to those who never smoked.”
Still, Stewart said, “that conversation is just starting. We’ll see in the next six months or so, some of the major cancer organizations come out with some statements about this. These conversations come at a time when everyone wants to reduce health care costs, or at least slow the increase in health care costs. But it’s still a big story, the idea that screening certain populations of people for lung cancer can be successful.”

Tobacco Road
The CT study isn’t the only exciting news in the realm of lung cancer, Stewart added.
“We’re smarter about lung cancer; it’s not just one disease, but it’s many different diseases, just like breast cancer and colon cancer,” he said. “And the testing of the molecular subtypes of cancer is leading to opportunities to use very specific treatments that will only work in that one subtype. Pathologists are moving fast on this, giving us more information about which lung cancer will respond to which treatment. That’s pretty exciting stuff.”
Still, doctors say, the best way to reduce the risk of lung cancer is simply not to smoke, or at least to quit as soon as possible.
“I always say right up front, if you really want to address lung cancer, you have to address smoking,” Stewart said. “Why we haven’t done a better job of that — well, there are many reasons, but that’s fundamental. Tobacco kills.”
But even quitters — while they’re admittedly at lesser risk than active tobacco users — are far from out of the woods, which is why the recent CT study focused on both smokers and former smokers.
“It’s a lifelong risk, even though you’ve quit,” Chuang said. “A lot of patients I see quit 10, 20 years ago, and they come in and say, ‘I quit; how come I have lung cancer?’ The reason is, by smoking, they may have already caused some of the mutations that cause cancer, and it was only a matter of time before the cell mutations required to transform into cancer cells happened.”
Detecting that progression in time to save lives has long been a struggle for doctors. Now, at least, CT screening can be a powerful tool to help them do just that. Deciding exactly how to wield that tool could prove to be just as challenging.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Moving Pictures

Health Care Sections

Using Photos and Music to Trigger Memories

Steve Berube turned a painful, challenging time in his life into a business that helps people recover their memories.

Steve Berube’s life changed forever in 1995 when a horrific car accident left him with multiple injuries, a double concussion, and serious memory loss. Years later, while trying mightily to recapture memories of time spent with family years earlier, Berube mixed pictures and music from his own youth. And some of the memories came back. Now, he’s trying to change other people’s lives through a product he’s developed called ‘photographic journeys.’

As a teenager growing up in the music-rich mid-’70s, Steve Berube remembers becoming almost obsessed with the work of Bruce Springsteen.
“I remember being in high school in 1975 when Born to Run came out…” he said, not finishing that thought, but instead shaking his head a number of times to effectively get his point across about how deeply the music impacted him.
He couldn’t possibly have imagined then that, more than 20 years later, subsequent songs from the Boss would help trigger memories of moments he, his wife, Lisa, and their two older children shared together — recollections he thought were lost forever after a horrific car accident in 1995 led to a double concussion, several other injuries, and tormenting memory loss.
Recalling the years after that mishap and his lengthy and difficult recovery, Berube said he would grow increasingly depressed as his daughter and son would play in the room in front of him and he would have to ask them their names. Equally maddening was staring at the seemingly endless array of Disney memorabilia in the Berube home, collected during multiple trips to Orlando, and not being able to remember anything from those excursions.
But then, through a combination of fate, hope, and something approaching science, Berube put together a chronological sequence of pictures of his children when they were young, including several from those Disney trips, and set them, digitally, to Springsteen music — specifically “Candy’s Room” and “The River.”
And some of those presumably lost memories came back.
“I was able to find the path to Disney for a number of things,” he said. “I had recollections of things I couldn’t remember before.”
It would be several years later before Berube would determine that this effective blend of sequential pictures of specific subjects and music to which an individual has an emotional attachment might constitute a successful therapy for some individuals suffering from memory loss.
On that occasion, he created a video featuring a similar mix of music and pictures for a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s, and, more specifically, the occasion of her entering an assisted-living facility.
“Three weeks later, I saw the woman’s daughter at the supermarket,” Berube recalled. “She dropped her bags, ran over to me, gave me a hug, and started bawling; she said her mother had called her by name for the first time in three months.”
Fast-forwarding a little (many more details later), Berube is working diligently toward building a business venture out of what can truly be called his discovery, this blend of two already-recognized memory-loss therapies — music and pictures. It’s called Moving Pictures Inc., featuring a product called ‘photographic journeys,’ or what he terms “cognitive memory therapy for the 21st century.”
The marketing materials recently developed for the product, a clinically based digital video production, says it “walks through a lifetime in pictures and music.” In doing so, that brochure continues, the journey “aims to improve face and name recognition, enhance self-identity, and reduce stress for the entire family.”
The literature makes heavy use of phrases like ‘aims to’ and ‘strives to,’ and the word ‘can’ (rather than ‘will’), because, in reality, the method has been used with only a handful of individuals, but with a high degree of success, said Berube. He noted that ongoing clinical trials involve several dozen people and, he predicts, add several layers of statistical evidence that this process can be a solution for some of those suffering memory loss due to Alzheimer’s, dementia, and head injuries.
Indeed, while developing his product, Berube has studied the suspected link between music and memories extensively, and said his development supports the findings of Petr Janata, an associate professor of Psychology at the University of California Davis and its Center for Mind and Body. Recently, Janata has done extensive work on the relationship between music, emotion, and memory, studying what he calls “music-evoked autobiographical memories.”
“What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in your head,” he said in a press release detailing his work. “It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye; we can see the association between those two things — the music and the memories.”
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at the concept Berube has developed, as well as the business he’s looking to build from it.

A Discovery of Note
Berube says that, 16 years after the auto accident, he still has issues with short- and long-term memory. Unfortunately, though, one thing he remembers clearly is that early-morning mishap that changed his life in so many ways.
Brought to the surface by hypnosis for one of the legal proceedings that ensued, he said the memories have stayed with him. He remembers that he was heading home from MassMutual, where he worked as a systems analyst, at about 1 in the morning. His normal shift had him working until 3 a.m., but with advances in technology, he and others in that role were able to do more of their work from home, and on this morning he was intent on doing so.
Having made the trek down State Street at that time of day countless times before, Berube said he knew the sequence of traffic lights by heart. As he approached the light at State and Main, it was red, but he knew it would be green by the time he reached the intersection. As he coasted through, however, the car coming south on Main went through a red light, he said, and hit him broadside, propelling his vehicle into the large office building at the corner.
The recovery from numerous injuries was long and difficult, he said, adding that, among other things, he suffered from what he called “unbearable headaches,” which set off deep depression. Later, there were seizures, and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, has lingered for some time.
There were also the issues with memory and how his brain processed information, which made it impossible to go back to work as a systems analyst, said Berube, adding that, while the inability to resume his promising and fulfilling career was frustrating, moreso was coping — or failing to cope, as the case may be — with the many lost pieces of his personal life.
He was especially frustrated by the fact that he had to keep asking his children their names, even though one of them, his daughter, was essentially named after him; he is Stephen Michael, and she is Stephanie Michelle. “I ended up trying to tie it back that way, and it still didn’t work,” he said.
The memory loss and resulting depression ultimately led him to try various things to bring out recollections.
“I needed to find a way to start being able to look at my kids and know who they were,” he said. “I needed to bring back the memories; I knew we went to Disney — we were Disney freaks and still are to some extent. We had all these pictures and all this stuff, but I had no memories. All these things were a blank.”
And because the house was decorated largely with Disney — his son’s room was “all Lion King” and his daughter’s room was “one of the Disney princesses, I don’t remember which one” — he couldn’t escape the maddening inability to remember.
Eventually, Berube scanned a number of photographs of his children and created what he called “digital videos” of their lives. And when he blended these images with “Candy’s Room” (for his daughter) and “The River” (for his son), some of the memories started coming back.
“I remembered this party we had for our daughter when she was a year and half old. I remember her getting picked up by a Hawaiian dancer. I was able to find that, and when you find things like that, other memories come back.”
Berube told BusinessWest that merely looking at old pictures didn’t trigger such memories. Rather, it was the blending of sequential pictures and music that has meaning in one’s life. Using “Candy’s Room” as an example, he said the song isn’t really about a child’s room, but to him it is, and more than that, it’s a key to unlocking memories of time spent with his daughter.
“That song, and watching that video over and over and over again for hours a day, day after day, week after week, eventually brought things back,” he said, “and it allowed me to start moving forward and not be so depressed about not remembering their names.
“The music, to me, is the key, but it has to be their music,” he said. “It has to be that individual’s favorite music from when they were growing up.”

For the Record
As he talked about how he would eventually take his concept and build a business around it, Berube said that this, too, was a long, trying process. Actually, since the accident, there have a few other forays into entrepreneurship, none of them successful.
One of these was a company that centered around the use of video to help children learn sports activities, such as hitting a baseball or shooting free throws in basketball. It was a good concept, Berube insists, noting that he sunk considerable resources into the venture, but it never took off.
The road to Moving Pictures was paved with the help of a hobby of sorts that he developed — creating videos detailing the lives of the recently deceased. He had created several of these videos, shown continuously at funerals, when he was approached by that aforementioned woman whose mother had Alzheimer’s.
“They got me the pictures, and I sat down at the computer and scanned them in,” he recalled, “and it struck me that her pictures were organized exactly like mine were for my kids. What this woman did was ask her siblings to give her pictures of them and their mom; almost every picture had the mom in it, and each would have a kid and the mom — they were in sequence, with the kid and the mom, until the kid was an adult.
“That brought me right back to my computer in Agawam trying to remember my kids,” he continued. “And I kept the photos in that order. I forget the music I used, but it was great music.”
After that encounter in the supermarket, Berube starting thinking that there was much more to the two incidents than coincidence, and so he continued to do research into the broad subject of memory and, more specifically, the ways in which pictures and music — two therapies that had been tried individually, but not in concert — could help people recover moments from their past.
His research took him to Janata’s work, which seemed to bolster Berube’s contention that music, coupled with carefully arranged pictures, could restore some memories.
“He [Janata] wired people so he could tell which parts of the brain would light up when subjects heard certain things,” Berube explained. “He found that, when people hear songs that they like, a certain part of the brain lights up.”
Other researchers have found that what triggers the memories isn’t the music as much as the emotional attachment to the music, he continued. “As certain songs are played, I can feel myself changing with the song, because each one brings you to parts of your life that your brain is attached to. When you’re young, and you listen to the same song over and over again, like I did with Springsteen, you have emotions tied to that song; that’s what you’re storing. The emotional part is stored forever, so when that song comes up, the part that stores the emotion … lights up.
“We hope that, by lighting up a part of the brain that we know works, we can reteach people,” he continued, adding that, by seeing pictures and hearing music, Berube believes individuals can relearn peoples’ names and remember things from their past.
As he explained how the photographic journeys process works, Berube popped in a display video, the same one that’s on the company’s Web site, www.journeys2remember.com. A composite of random photographs, the video doesn’t represent an actual family, but shows how the process works. Starting with the subject male’s wife, it proceeds to show photographs of an extended family, including children and grandchildren.
Each individual is moved digitally to the center of the photograph, and their name appears on or near the image. There is accompanying information as well, such as ‘first daughter’ and ‘oldest grandchild.’ This chronological collage is then set to music that, in most cases, the individual would have listened to in his or her teens and 20s.
Moving Pictures was incorporated roughly a year ago, and over the course of that time Berube has been hard at work trying to get a business started with what he considers a sound idea, but limited capital. Along the way, five photographic journeys were essentially given away to selected clients, with four of them experiencing positive results — meaning a real difference in their ability to recognize people and recall events — and the fifth at such an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s that improvement should not have been expected, in Berube’s estimation.
After some false starts with the concept, some venture capital has been raised, and an office has been created in Feeding Hills. The plan moving forward is to aggressively market the concept through the Internet and pitches to individual assisted-living communities.
Clinical trials involving perhaps 150 individuals are currently underway, Berube noted, adding that he is confident that the trials will yield considerably more statistical support for the product and act as a strong selling tool.

All the Way Home
Time will tell if photographic journeys can make the leap from clinical concept to successful business product.
Berube knows that, like his road back from his accident and the subsequent physical and neurological ailments, this trek is a long and winding road.
But he firmly believes that the memories summoned by photos of his children and some old Springsteen songs are not the product of chance, but rather a clinical success story he hopes to rewrite for people around the world.
In short, he believes this product, this breakthrough, was — as his favorite musician might say — born to run.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Doing Business In: Belchertown

Progress Is Defined by Big Projects, Small Businesses

Bill Terry says communication with residents is crucial to moving big projects, such as the proposed assisted-living facility, along.

Kenneth Elstein, newly appointed chair of the Belchertown Board of Selectmen, said that, with so much going on in town these days, it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees.
While two large, long-running projects — the ongoing saga involving redevelopment of the former Belchertown State School and long-overdue realization of the Cold Spring Golf Course on Route 21 — are the buzz from Town Hall to the coffee shops, this community remains a fertile field for small business.
“These smaller shops opening up aren’t making headlines the way those other two are,” Elstein told BusinessWest. “But they are certainly affecting the shape of the business sector here.”
In what he called “news falling under the radar,” Elstein said that new business has grown to the extent that it has markedly affected the town’s tax revenues. “Since the mid-’90s,” he explained, “not only has business real-estate tax revenue gone up, but it has gone up hugely as a proportion of the overall tax collections. It’s something on the order of 4% to 8% over the past 15 years. We have the fastest-growing town in Western Mass., so you’d expect it to go up as a straight dollar amount. But to go up as a percentage amount is enormously important. It helps relieve the rest of the tax burden for residents.”
Elaborating, he cited figures from the town’s Community Preservation Committee. “Between 2001 and 2008, businesses increased by 36%, and jobs by 29%.’”
So small-headline operations are clearly making a marked impact in this town of 15,000. But those aforementioned signature projects are still the talk of the town, and there is apparent progress with both.
Town Planner Doug Albertson told BusinessWest that, after numerous false starts, the golf course, now owned by Qianlong (US Boston) LLC, a Chinese business with an office in the Boston metropolitan area, is seemingly ready for prime time.
“Of course, this property has been through a few hands in the last 13 years,” he said. “This time, though, people are confident. Qianlong has put a lot of money into this project.”
Indeed, since acquiring the property from Southbridge Savings Bank, which owned it through foreclosure, Qianlong has invested large sums on top of the $2.3 million purchase price. And the course, which is described as a high-end, destination layout, is finally completed, and set to open in 2012.
Meanwhile, concerning the state school property, Bill Terry, chairman of the Belchertown Economic Development and Industrial Corp. (BEDIC), said that stages of the project are moving forward, and the partnership with Weston Solutions to develop the beleaguered site is solid, with an auspicious future.
But a lot now depends on the town’s voting population, he continued, noting that votes at a series of town meetings will ultimately determine the fate of the property.

Linked In
Just over a decade ago, the property on Chauncey Walker Street, a.k.a. Route 21, was an apple orchard, said Albertson, adding that its evolution into a golf course has been a slow and (for town residents) painful process of evolution and business calamity.
The original developers of the project petitioned for a golf course special permit in 1998, and as part of that development also planned a 150-unit residential development, typical of similar high-end golf initiatives.
“They made errors, shall we say,” he explained, “and lost the property. The next investor did finish the golf course, but they, too, lost the property to foreclosure.”
The golf course that Qianlong purchased in August 2009 was basically complete, but not fully finished. According to materials distributed to local press, Qianlong has finally made the finishing touches needed to make it a high-end destination course.
“Qianlong has already spent a few million in infrastructure,” Elstein said. “Roads, paved cart paths, drainage … to complete the project, the final numbers that have been bandied about are along the lines of $40 million in total investment. A couple weeks ago, the latest that came to us was a special permit for the main public building on the site, which will be a catering hall and restaurant.
“The developer is throwing out numbers like 190 employees,” he continued, “probably not all full-time due to the nature of catering types of jobs. But unmistakably it is a facility the likes of which we don’t have here. It would be a big place, in the context of our town. And this developer has a keen interest in attracting foreign tourists. Qianlong has a lot of plans for this site. There has been talk about doing retiree housing there, also.”
According to Lawrence Tuttle, one of the principals and owners of Architectural Insights in Palmer, architect for all structures at the course, the clubhouse will be the first of the formal, public buildings to be completed. Tee times should expect to follow sometime in May 2012.
“The clubhouse will be prominent up the hillside and highly visible upon approaches to the property,” he said. “It’s a cross between a traditional and craftsman-style of construction — fairly informal, but with some rich detailing.
“The owners have made a reinforced effort and determination to make this a thoroughly quality development,” he continued. “That is apparent with the money already spent at the golf course, and also, pulling back, in reviewing the overall master plan, and their acquisition of other property adjacent to the original golf course.”
A critical component to that master plan is the number of residential units ultimately to be built at the course. While earlier developments had projected more than 150 apartment-style units, the current design calls for 75 duplex residences, to be landscaped into the property while maximizing views out over the course and the surrounding valley.
Ultimately the market will dictate the completion date for the full complement of residences, but Tuttle said that, with the current pace, it’s possible to see the start of construction as soon as next year. But for now, it’s all about the links.
“We are delighted at the scope and quality of this project,” he said. “We’re putting quite a bit of energy into the project, but so are the owners. A lot of local craftspeople and trades are involved in this project, so it’s good for many around here.”

Some Assistance, Please
As for the state school property, which has been closed for more than a decade, Elstein said that quite a few people who have expressed interest to the BEDIC in doing business on that site. And Terry said the same thing.
However, before that can happen, a project needs to get underway, something that will generate momentum and turn interest into activity.
Weston Solutions, the enterprise committed to the revitalization of the state school property, has identified an assisted-living developer who is, in Terry’s words, “ready to go” on a 170,000-square-foot facility that could provide such a spark.
Weston has asked the BEDIC to sell it a 10-acre parcel for this purpose off Berkshire Avenue, a town road that needs to be improved. Such a first step would signal the beginnings of the larger redevelopment and, in Terry’s words, “would identify to the world that we are for real, and the number-two deal would be forthcoming.
“So our task here in town now is to figure out how to make it happen,” he added.
The BEDIC would need to upgrade the road, and Weston has agreed to the subsequent expenditures necessary for the assisted-living development, to the tune of some $2 million, said Terry. In order to pull its end of the agreement, the BEDIC is putting together a DIF (district improvement financing) package, which would allow the town to vote on a real-estate tax flow, which would allocate funds for a bond to complete the road repair.
And the paper chase doesn’t stop there. “We’re also in the process of pulling together a second grant application that looks at other infrastructure work,” Terry explained, “because it appears that this is something the BEDIC can do.
“But we’re also doing a third thing,” he went on, “which is working with our legislative team on discussions to see what the Commonwealth would like to do in cleaning up the rest of the state school property. The bottom line is, because of the contamination on the site — asbestos, lead paint, and more — it’s more expensive to clean the site up than the absolute value of the property once cleaned. So we have to take that case to the Commonwealth and see if, in fact, they will consider funding some of those bonds to clean up the rest of the site. And then we would turn around and sell those pieces of property at fair market value.”
The immediate deal that needs to begin, however, is the project for the assisted-living facility, and it is here that Terry said the full participation of Belchertown’s voters is essential for the future of their town. The first vote will be to set up a DIF for the 10 acres, and pending that approval, the second vote would be to sign the real-estate tax flow with the project’s developer, in order to pay off the bond for the infrastructure repair.
“Anything we do is going to be brought to the town meeting,” Terry emphasized. “Obviously there will be public meetings, and these things will also be discussed in front of the Channel 5 public access. People can track along the entire way.
“And once we get the hearings scheduled,” he added, “we’re hoping the townspeople take the time to understand how these things happen. Because if we’re not successful at town meeting, we’ll have no project, and no way to move forward because there aren’t funds available otherwise to do what has to be done.”
He gives top marks to all the local participants working diligently — on a volunteer basis — to see this successfully to fruition. And Weston, he added, is fully committed to the project.
A lot depends on the people in town, however, and Terry admitted that these tougher financial times mean that an initial opportunity such as the one presented by Weston needs to happen procedurally, all the while taking a bit more time than would be the case during a more robust economy.
But there are other businesses in the wings awaiting the fate of the assisted-living project. And while it’s too soon to tell who these parties might be, the fact stands that Belchertown itself is on the radar.

School of Thought
“We’ve done a lot of due diligence, and we’re seeking advice and counsel on all fronts,” Terry said, explaining the stages before these crucial decisions at the ballot box.
“I’d say it’s like moving a chain uphill with your nose,” he said with a smile. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Opinion

Opinion

Educate Our Cities Back to Life

Detroit has been losing people and jobs for decades, but it isn’t the only place where unemployment rates are well above 10%. Three of Massachusetts’ 12 largest cities have unemployment rates of 13% of more. At the top of the list is Lawrence, at 16.8%. Per-capita incomes in Lawrence, as in Detroit, are more than 40% below the U.S. average.
Yet Lawrence, unlike Detroit, is growing. In fact, it’s growing faster than any other city in Massachusetts. Its expansion as an entry point for immigrants in Massachusetts could be a source of economic strength if Lawrence could balance immigration with education. Regional disparities in Massachusetts are largely explained by education, which is why strengthening the schooling of our poorest communities must be a high priority for the entire state.
In practice, that will mean a keener educational focus on the recent immigrants who are fueling the growth of cities like Lawrence — perhaps with even more support for charter schools, some of which have achieved remarkable results with Hispanic children.
Population changes between 2000 and 2010 suggested a few key factors in the growth of U.S. cities with fewer than 200,000 people. One was a warm climate, a factor that doesn’t apply here in Massachusetts. Another was a high education level; cities where one-quarter or more of adults had college degrees grew much faster than less-educated cities. It’s easy to imagine educated hipsters flocking to dense but manageably sized cities in pursuit of a cool night out.
Still another factor was a sizeable Hispanic population. The U.S. is becoming increasingly Latin. A city like Lawrence — where more than one-third of the population is foreign-born and almost three-quarters are Hispanic — provides new immigrants with the comfort of ethnic enclaves and the ability to get around without a car.
When education and immigration are well-balanced, both forces help cities thrive. The foreign-born can be a bridge to the global economy. In mid-sized, northern-tier cities where more than one-quarter of adults have college degrees, incomes are 45% higher than in less well-educated cities.
Larger cities, like Boston and New York, can comfortably combine well-educated elites and poorer new arrivals. The peril of mid-sized cities is that they can become monocultures. If they become boutique towns that house only the well-educated, then they do little to spread prosperity. If they become isolated enclaves of poorer immigrants, they may lack the resources that enable opportunity.
Some former immigrant bastions, such as Cambridge and Somerville, have prospered because they are tightly tied to Boston’s success as a capital of the information age, and because they combine immigration and education. More than one-fourth of the residents of Cambridge and Somerville are foreign-born, and more than one-half of adults have college degrees. In both cities, unemployment rates are below 6%, and incomes are well above the national average.
Quincy and Worcester are two other mid-sized cities that are managing the balancing act moderately well. Worcester may have once seemed like an urban disaster, but the city’s abundant educational institutions have helped its population to grow steadily over the past 10 years. Quincy, the state’s most Asian city, has plenty of both foreign-born residents and college graduates.
But while Fall River, New Bedford, and Lawrence continue to play an important role welcoming large immigrant communities, they have too little education. Their large immigrant communities remind us of the opportunity that Massachusetts once provided for impoverished Irish and Italians, but their difficulties also remind us that opportunity rarely comes easily.
Expensive infrastructure schemes, like new commuter rail lines, are occasionally floated as tools to turn around these troubled towns. But the children growing up in these areas really need human, not physical, capital. Schooling is the most reliable source of individual and urban success. The work of MIT economist Joshua Angrist and his co-authors has identified particularly large benefits of charter schools for urban Hispanics, which should make us hopeful about the new charters that have recently been approved for Lawrence.
That is only a small step. But Lawrence’s fight is also the Bay State’s fight.

Edward L. Glaeser, an economist at Harvard University, is author of The Triumph of the City.

Building Permits

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the months of June and July 2011.

AGAWAM

Agawam Plaza
67 Springfield St.
$30,000 — Fire sprinkler installation

CHICOPEE

Berkshire Retail
205 Exchange St.
$45,000 — Renovate Internet cafe

Callaway Golf Sales Company
425 Meadow St.
$19,000 — Renovate existing duct system

Con-Way Transportation
84 New Lombard Road
$82,000 — Roof repair

Faith Methodist Church
181 Montcalm St.
$9,500 — Install replacement windows

Hair Cuttery
1410 Memorial Dr.
$30,000 — Store remodel

Nineteenth Association Properties, Inc.
561 Sheridan St.
$8,000 — Add 8-by-14 deck with ramp

TFGC
425 Meadow St.
$35,000 — Erect wall partitions

HADLEY

Kevin Michelson
8 Pine Hill Road
$14,000 — Construct waiting room for customers

HOLYOKE

Jeffrey Wilga Jr.
269 Whitney Ave.
$13,600 — Build new addition

Jonathan M. David
2 Oscar St.
$22,300 — Re-build collapsed roof

Nicole Rodrigues
48 Portland St.
$5,000 — Renovations

Patrick Mangan Trust
317 Westfield Road
$3,800 — Install patio door

LUDLOW

Big Y Foods Inc.
433 Center St.
$98,500 — New roof

Lil’ Dogs
393 East St.
$7,000 — New roof

NORTHAMPTON

F. L. Roberts & Company
63 Main St.
$39,000 — Exterior renovations

Garden Building, LLC
361 Main St.
$10,000 — Exterior renovations

Leo P. Lachance
487-489 Bernardston Road
$208,000 — Interior renovations for a new community medical center

SOUTH HADLEY

Cumberland Farms
507 Newton St.
$350,000 — Store renovations

E Ink
7 Gaylord St.
$1,505,000 — Commercial renovation

Mount Holyoke College
1 Everett St.
$1,097,600 — Construction of a new public safety building

SPRINGFIELD

Fuller Development, LLC
1545 Main St.
$91,000 — Tenant fit-up

HGI
820 West Columbus Ave.
$6,000 — Build exterior deck

Mercy Hospital
233 Carew St.
$4,190,000 — Renovate fourth and fifth floor

WESTFIELD

Briarwood, LLC
70 Court St.
$1,500 — Interior renovations

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies Departments

The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

Acevedo-Barrows, Natasha
252 Gilbert Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Alves, Adam
72 Canal Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Anderson, Lynne S.
24 Hamilton Ave
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/08/11

Ardizzoni, Thomas Joseph
Ardizzoni, Sandra Lee
22 Holland Road
Wales, MA 01081
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Baez, Evelyn
565 Riverside Road
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Baez, Pedro
a/k/a Baez, Peter
565 Riverside Road
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Ballester, Gloria I.
28 Sherbrooke St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Basu, Biswajit
Basu, Vandana
48 Holy Family Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/04/11

Beraldi, Michael E.
29 Pine St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Bernardos, Robert J.
Bernardos, Luce T.
a/k/a Bressette, Luce T.
54 Wing St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Bizon, Danielle M.
74 Front St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/02/11

Block, John Chris
26 Mountain Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Blue Tomato Farm Food
Hu, Guang
a/k/a Hu, Phillip G.
55 North Main St., Unit 41
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Boniface, Christopher M.
252 Kings Highway
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/08/11

Boos, Erica A.
2215 Main St.
Three Rivers, MA 01080
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Bouchard, Denise J.
63 7th St.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Boucher Sr., Gilbert E.
P.O. Box 225
Oakham, MA 01068
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Boulware, Stella M.
a/k/a Mims-Hylton, Stella
61 Kimberly Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Burnett, Ann E.
415 Springfield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Byrd, Leah
35 Hope Farms Dr.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Carlson, Erik J.
37 Boutin St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/14/11

Carpenter, John H.
Carpenter, Joanne E.
23 Berkshire Circle
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/14/11

Chevalier, Marjorie A.
185 Chudy St.
Three Rivers, MA 01080
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Conniff, Daniel J.
Conniff, Pamela D.
30 Mooreland St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Cullen, Courtney Jean
40 High St. Apt. N
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Dawson, Randall C.
Dawson, Brigitte A.
P.O. Box 292
Ashley Falls, MA 01230
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Demarco, Roberta M.
a/k/a Demarco, Robbie M.
84 Worthy Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Dimos, James K.
PO Box 882
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Dolan, Eileen T.
a/k/a Grimaldi, Eileen
11 King Place
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Dulude, Kenneth G.
Dulude, Kristie A.
162 Penrose St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/11

ELR designs
Interiors by ELR Designs
Rhindress, Erin Leigh
a/k/a Boughamer, Erin Leigh
343 Wilbraham Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Enright, Benjamin P.
4 Highland Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Fernandes, Roberto
21 Jackson St., #2
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Fitch, Judith E.
21 Clayton Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Flynn, George F.
Flynn, Linda L.
41 Rabideau Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Furnia, Joseph C.
Furnia, Gloria G.
154 Taylor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Glover, Grady A.
Glover, Amanda R.
220 2nd St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Gonzalez, Joseph Perez
327 Orange St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/12/11

Griffin, Ruth F.
67 Clough St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Grimaldi, Jennie L.
525 Cooper St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/11

Gugenberger, Steven A.
36 Beauregard St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Hambley, Mark Gregory
190 Longhill St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Hector, James G.
62 Edwards St., Apt. 203
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Holzhauer, Mariah
121 Greenfield Road, Apt. 1
Montague, MA 01351
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Jahn, Maria Davina
50 Pine St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Jenco, Mark P.
5 Newell St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/08/11

JOE Construction Services
National Service
Prince, Joseph D.
Prince, Renee M.
153 Mt Vernon Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Kennedy, Cheri L.
31 Borys Circle
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Kennedy, Jason D.
31 Borys Circle
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Kirouac, Donna Lee
72 Washington St.
Lynn, MA 01902
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Knight, Norma L.
25 First St.
Hampton Ponds
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Krutka, James W.
Krutka, Julianne M.
74 King St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Lacki, Lester S.
Lacki, Mary Alyce
650 Silver Lake St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Lapointe, Steven J.
Lapointe, Lynn
36 Raymond Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Larder, Marc M.
Larder, Ellen M.
37 Helen Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/01/11

LeClair, Frank
14 Goodman Lane
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

LeVardi, Jerry P.
1125 Sandmill Road
Cheshire, MA 01225
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/11

Lucia, Denise M.
6 Paper St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Mahoney, James L.
2460 Pendleton Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Marlow, Matthew Fredrick
46 Clinton Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/14/11

Matta, Gerald
397 Palmer Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

McCarthy, Peter E.
Caballero-McCarthy, Minerva
a/k/a Reardon, Minerva C.
115 Barbara Lane
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Medvec, Stephen W.
P.O. Box 1046
Pittsfield, MA 01202
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Moore, Edna M.
P.O. Box 82
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Mowe, Marcia Ann
74 Park Ave.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Nassar, Micah G.
45 Williow St., Apt 30
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/11

Newton-Irelan, Robin F.
870 East St.
Lenox, MA 01240
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Nielsen, Donald
735 Memorial Dr. #33
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Noonan, Michael W.
58 Summit St.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

North Adams Regional Hospital
71 Hospital Ave.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 11
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Northern Berkshire Health
71 Hospital Ave.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 11
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Northern Berkshire Realty
71 Hospital Ave.
Doctors Building, Room 2
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 11
Filing Date: 06/13/11

O’Neill, Roy
664 East Main St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/05/11

Pagan, Julio A.
1224 Page Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Phillips, Christopher K.
Phillips, Melissa T.
a/k/a Torres, Melissa
73 Armstrong St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Phillips, Claiborne Hooper
120 Central St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Prouty, Frances A.
154 McIntosh Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/14/11

Renaud, Michele A.
1073 Pine St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Rivera, Marisol
859 Main St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Robinson, Brett L.
Robinson, Lauren A.
a/k/a Cardin, Lauren A.
P.O. Box 801
Wales, MA 01081
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Robinson, Ernestine
9 Sycamore St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Rubero, Jose F.
2 Old Bay Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/11

Senecal, Sharen A.
20 Faulkner Place
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Something Special Catering
Bernier, Laurie A.
P.O. Box 227
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/01/11

Soto, Susan M.
a/k/a Craven, Susan M.
275 Main St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/04/11

Spencer, Allan L.
Spencer, Karen
298 Monson Turnpike Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Springer, Edward P.
Springer, Laurie A.
47 Davis St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/10/11

Strong, Craig R.
95 Gilbert Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/11

Sullivan, James M.
Sullivan, Rebecca E.
73 Somerset St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/10/11

Surprenant, John Paul
Surprenant, Mary Elizabeth
PO Box 498
Brimfield, MA 01010
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Swayger, Michael J.
P.O. Box 83
Westfield, MA 01086
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Talbot, Erica J.
96 Anzio Road
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Talbot, James M.
324 Southwick Road, C-7
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Tavernier, Stephen A.
Tavernier, Marie E.
92 Florence St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Thomas, Jason
Thomas, Teresa Lynn
92B Little Rest Road
Warren, MA 01083
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/11

Trott, Brian A.
400 East St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Vadnais, Phillip G.
16 Monroe St.
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Vega, Henry A.
Vega, Catherine P.
a/k/a Dagastino, Catherine
13 Day Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/11

VG Janitorial Service
Govine, Vincent
42 Holland Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/14/11

Visiting Nurse Association
535 Curran Highway
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 11
Filing Date: 06/13/11

Warner, Debra E.
111 Hope St., Apt. 3S
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/11

Whalen, Michael Patrick
Whalen, Linda Rita
115 Shearer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/09/11

Willaims, Dianne Marie
107 Monrovia St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Williams, Jean
23 Monticello Ave
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/14/11

Woods, Catherine Mary
105 East St.
Clinton, MA 01510
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/11

Young, Mary Margaret
184 Coyote Circle
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/11

Incorporations

Departments Incorporations

The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.

AMHERST

Sing This Summer Inc., 137 Pine St., Amherst, MA 01002. Jonathan Hirsh, same. Vocal training and coaching.

CHICOPEE

Zohra Inc., 659 Grattan St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Umar Bhatti, same. Convenience store.

GREAT BARRINGTON

Rude Movement Inc., 14 Berkshire Circle, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Jordan Ivey Weller, same. Organization designed to encourage good public behavior among citizens of Massachusetts.

HOLYOKE

Sybm Inc., 10 Beacon Ave., Holyoke, MA 01040. Alizabeth Bernadette Showers, same. To improve the communities in which we live by adding value through everyday contributions in the arts, education, and enterprise. Sybm hopes to create a renaissance like movement restoring the belief in our youth and young adults the ability to dream without fear.

Victory Home Healthcare Inc., 717 Northampton St., Unit 41, Holyoke, MA 01040. Jacob Waah, same. Home health care services.

Western Mass Safety and Fire Education Assoc. Inc., 600 High St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Michael Richard, 10 Heritage Lane, Monson, MA 01057.

HUNTINGTON

The Huntington Public library Foundation Inc., 7 Main St., Huntington, MA 01050. Karen Wittshirk, 143 Pond Brook Road, Huntington, MA 01050. Nonprofit organization formed to support and promote the Huntington Public Library.

INDIAN ORCHARD

Seven Oceans Inc., 967 Worcester St., Apt 3, Indian Orchard, MA 01151. Ramzan Ali, same. Convenience store.

Western Mass Hackerspace Corp., 34 Front St., Indian Orchard, MA 01151. Patrick Cagan, 11 Lewis St., Westfield, MA 01085. To promote and encourage technical, scientific, and artistic skills through individual projects, social collaboration and education.

LENOX

Stockbridge Motorcar Company Inc., 150 Hubbard St., Lenox, MA 01240. Automotive repairs and sales.

Women’s Interactive Network Inc., 213 Main St., Lenox, MA 01240. Laura Fetherolf, same.

LONGMEADOW

Springfield Rifles Inc., 100 Jonquil lane, Longmeadow, MA 01106. Youth hockey program.

NORTHAMPTON

Rich Denno Inc., 551 Florence Road, Northampton, MA 01062. Richard Denno, same. Construction.

Wayde James Inc., 49 Pine Brook Curv, Northampton, MA 01060. Wayde James, same. Construction.

SOUTH DEERFIELD

Primo Pizzeria & Restaurant Inc., 4B Sugerloaf St., South Deerfield, MA 01373. Ismael Alvarado, 275 East Hadley Road, Amherst, MA 01002. Pizzeria and restaurant

SPRINGFIELD

Quality Import Management Inc., 626 Carew St., Springfield, MA 01104. Jhoan Cruz, same. Roumeliotis Law Group, P.C. 51 Taylor St., Springfield, MA 01103. George Roumeliotis, same. Professional law services and consultation.

Royal Professional Inc., 101 Mulberry St., #113, Springfield, MA 01105. Avihen Levanon, same. Retail hair sales products.

Sh Wireless Inc., 1365A Liberty St., Springfield, MA 01104. Jin Hong, 2334 Founders Way, Saugus, MA 01906. Cellular phone sales and service.

Springfield Wildcats Inc., 179 Warrenton St., Springfield, MA 01109. Crystal Mendoza, same. Youth football and cheerleading program for grades 3-8.

St. James Property Mgmt. Inc., 706 Saint James Ave., Springfield, MA 01104. Carlos Rivera, 90 Paramount St., Springfield, MA 01104. Commercial property-management company.

Varsity Entertainment Group Inc., 202 Northampton Ave., Springfield, MA 01109. Heath Richardson, same. Music composition.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Tri-State Fabricators Inc., 49 Apricot Hill Lane, West Springfield, MA 01089. Mark Edwards, same. Metal fabrications and construction.

WILBRAHAM

Wilbraham Construction Inc., 10 Beechwood Dr., Wilbraham, MA 01095. Judy Bergdoll, same. Construction

WILLIAMSBURG

Scotti’s Inc., 151 Sugar Hill Road, Williamsburg, MA 01096. Pierre Brisson, same. Limited food service and recreation.

WILLIAMSTOWN

Willows For Holidays Inc., 480 Williamstown, MA 01267. Bhupinder Sabharwal, same. Motel.

People on the Move

Departments People on the Move

United Bank announced the following:

Barbara-Jean DeLoria

• Barbara-Jean DeLoria has been named Senior Vice President of Commercial and Retail Lending. She has been with United since 1989, most recently serving as a senior vice president and commercial lending officer. She also has overall responsibility for the bank’s consumer lending department. In her new role, DeLoria will remain based at the bank’s corporate headquarters in West Springfield and will maintain her commercial-lending portfolio, in addition to her new responsibility for managing the bank’s retail lending division, which includes consumer and residential lending. DeLoria is treasurer of the Affiliated Chamber of Commerce of Greater Springfield and serves on the Professional Women’s Chamber. She also serves on boards for the Weston Rehabilitation Center for Women, the Massachusetts Small Business Review Board, and Springfield Rifles Hockey Inc. She is a teacher for the Center of Financial Training (CFT) and president of Dress for Success of Western Mass.; and
•

Milly Parzychowski

has been hired as Assistant Vice President and Residential Lending Sales Manager. She is a new addition to the United Bank team, bringing with her decades of experience in mortgage financing in the Greater Springfield area. As the assistant vice president and residential lending sales manager based at the bank’s corporate headquarters in West Springfield, Parzychowski is responsible for managing the residential-lending team of originators, as well as residential-mortgage business development. Parzychowski joins the bank from Mortgage Master in West Springfield, where she served as senior loan officer, a position she had also held previously with Family Choice Mortgage Corp. in West Springfield. She serves as chair of the Board of Directors for the Agawam Small Business Assistance Center, is immediate past president of the West Springfield/Agawam Kiwanis Club, and is active in several charitable organizations.
•••••
Attorney Susan Fentin, a partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., will be a key speaker at the 2011 Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 6 and 7. Fentin will be part of the keynote panel that will begin the symposium and will be speaking on independent contractor misclassification, a topic of significance for employers in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the U.S.
•••••

Tamara Fricke

The Massachusetts Chamber of Business and Industry announced that Tamara Fricke has been named Vice President and Manager of Chamber Relations. She comes to the chamber with more than 15 years of professional experience in managing sales, marketing, and information-technology initiatives.
•••••
Dietz & Co. Architects announced the following:
• Jamie Kelliher has joined the firm. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of Architecture degree and the University of Arizona with a master of Architecture degree in Urban Design. Prior to joining Dietz & Co. Architects, he worked at Drachman Institute for Regional Development in Tucson, Ariz. and Paolo Soleri/Arcosanti Planning Office in Mayer, Ariz., where he acquired experience working on complex, high-end, award-winning, multi-family, mixed-use building projects. He collaborated on the Soleri Bridge and Plaza in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the design incorporated hallmarks of Paolo Soleri’s signature style and was also designed to bring awareness of our human connection to the sun and the natural world;

Josh Payne

• Josh Payne has joined the firm as an Architectural Associate. He graduated from Roger Williams University with a bachelor of Architecture Degree and studied planning, architectural design, and art history for a semester at Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Italy. He acquired valuable experience collaborating on complex, high-end residential projects at a design firm in Great Barrington;

Kris Kennedy

• Kris Kennedy has joined the firm as an Architectural Associate. He came to Dietz as an intern in the spring of 2010 and has since earned his master of Architecture degree from UMass Amherst. He was one of three graduates honored by the faculty of the Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society, which is the only national honor society in architecture. He also acquired his certification as LEED AP BD+C. He was involved as a session chair at the NESEA Conference BE11 this past Spring. He is most interested in sustainability and community engagement through design; and
• Mark Hellen has joined the firm. He graduated from New York University and Boston Architectural College with a master of Architecture degree. Prior to joining the firm, he spent over 10 years at CBT in Boston, working on various educational, residential, and commercial projects. His extensive list of experience, regionally, includes the design of Turner Hill Cottage Development, a residential project on an exclusive golf course in Ipswich, Mass., and Northfield Mount Hermon Rhodes Art Center, an educational project encompassing multiple classroom, art, and performance spaces. His most complex past project is Champlain College, which included adding four dormitory buildings to an existing neighborhood.
•••••

Kristen Adams

Kristen Adams has been named eMarketing Officer for Florence Savings Bank. Adams joined FSB in June, having worked most recently as an Internet Marketing Manager at the Janlynn Corporation. Active in the community, Adams is a volunteer at Big Brothers Big Sisters and a member of Northampton Area Young Professionals.
•••••
Attorney Ryan Alekman, a Partner of Alekman DiTusa in Springfield, has been elected to a two-year term on the Board of Governors of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. A graduate of the Western New England College School of Law, he handles personal-injury and criminal-defense cases.
•••••
Nuvo Bank & Trust Co. has promoted Susan Fearn to Assistant Vice President in addition to her duties as Client Sales and Service Manager.
•••••
Brian O’Shea, Manager of the Holyoke McDonald’s, 285 Maple St., and Jeremy Zimowsky, manager of the 2194 Northampton St., Holyoke McDonald’s, are recipients of Outstanding Restaurant Manager awards by the Connecticut and Western Mass. McDonald’s Owner-Operator Assoc. The award recognizes managers whose McDonald’s restaurants operate at an outstanding level and exemplify leadership following McDonald’s key initiatives. The top 10% of restaurant managers are bestowed with the honor.
•••••
The Mass. Society of Certified Public Accountants Inc. recently elected its board of directors for the 2011-12 fiscal year. The MSCPA board of directors sets policies, manages programs, and oversees activities that benefit the 10,500-plus-member organization and accounting profession. The following will serve as board officers:
• Stuart Benton, CPA, Bradford Soapworks Inc., as chairman;
• Kenneth Kirkland, CPA, KAF Financial Group, as chairman-elect;
• Merrill Puopolo, CPA, CBIZ, Tofias & Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. – Tofias New England Division, as vice-chairwoman of finance;
• Tracy Noga, CPA, Bentley University, as vice chairwoman;
• William Mahoney, CPA, Edelstein & Co. LLP, as vice chairman;
• Jeffrey Solomon, CPA, Levine Katz Nannis + Solomon P.C., as past chairman; and
• Theodore Flynn, CAE, MSCPA, as president and CEO.
The following will sit on the board as members: Cheryl Burke, DiCicco Gulman & Co. LLP; Frank Constance, CPA, Coles & Bodoin LLP; Kristin Costa, CPA, Braver P.C.; Paul Gerry Jr., CPA, Gray Gray & Gray LLP; Gerald Gerson, CPA, Litman Gerson LLP; Scott Levy, CPA, Grant Thornton LLP; Kevin Martin Jr., CPA, MST, Kevin Martin & Associates P.C.; Carla McCall, CPA, Alexander Aronson Finning & Co. P.C.; Robb Morton, CPA, CITP, Boiselle Morton & Associates LLP; George Neble, CPA, Ernst & Young LLP; Charles O’Donnell, CPA, Hans Kissle Co. Inc.; and Carolyn Stall, CPA, Stall Advisors LLC.
•••••
The Springfield Technical Community College Foundation recently welcomed three new members to its board:

Raymond Berry

• Raymond Berry is Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration for the United Way of Pioneer Valley. He previously held positions at MARC: Community Resources, the Springfield Housing Authority, and the Mason Square Development Corp.;

Sheila King Goodwin

• Sheila King Goodwin is Senior Vice President of Retail for PeoplesBank and previously held management positions at Citizens Bank and Fleet Bank; and

Michael Weekes

• Michael Weekes of Longmeadow is President and CEO of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, the state’s largest human-service
trade association, and also of the Human Services Providers Charitable Foundation.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

Chamber Corners Departments

Chicopee Chamber of Commerce
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• Aug. 3: Red Sox Bus Trip to Fenway Park vs. Cleveland Indians. Game time: 7:10 p.m. Cost: $105 each. Limited tickets are still available.
• Aug. 24: Business After Hours, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., hosted on a C-5 at Westover Air Reserve Base. Cost: $10 for members, $20 for non-members. Registration is required.

Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• Aug. 11: Networking by Night Business Card Exchange, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Nicky D’s, 164 Northampton St., Easthampton. Sponsored by 5 Star Building Corp. Door prizes, hors d’ouevres, host beer and wine. Cost: $5 for members, $15 for non-members.
Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376

• Aug. 24: Chamber Business Salute Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m., hosted by the Yankee Pedlar, 1866 Northampton St., Holyoke. Sponsored by Lyon & Fitzpatrick LLP. Cost: $20 for a buffet breakfast. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to reserve tickets or log onto www.holycham.com.

South Hadley/Granby Chamber of Commerce
www.shchamber.com
(413) 532-6451

• Aug. 9: “Step Away” for Chamber, 8-11 a.m., hosted by Wingate Nursing Home, Rt. 202, South Hadley. No cost, but There is no cost, but members must RSVP to Kay Sordillo at [email protected] by Aug. 5. Chamber members only.

West of the River Chamber of Commerce
www.ourwrc.com
(413) 426-3880

• Aug. 22: 8th Annual Golf Tournament, hosted by Oakridge Country Club, Agawam. Registration at 11:30 a.m., lunch on terrace at 12 noon, shotgun start at 1 p.m. (scramble format), sit-down banquet dinner at 5:30 p.m. Cost: golf and dinner, $99 per player; dinner only: $35 per person; tee or green sponsor, $75. Other sponsorships available; contact chamber for more information. Fees include green fees, 18 holes of golf with cart, lunch on terrace, refreshments on course, and formal banquet dinner. Banquet dinner includes raffles; silent auction; prizes for first-, second-, and third-place teams, hole in one, closest to the pin, longest drive, and most accurate drive.

Court Dockets

Court Dockets Departments

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT
Ted Ondrick Co. Inc. v. Bruschi Brothers Inc.
Allegation: Breach of written agreement: $14,608.90
Filed: 6/13/11

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT
Kevin Bonfilio v. Main Street Bar & Grille, et al
Allegation: While at the defendant’s tavern, plaintiff was beaten by two intoxicated patrons, suffering permanent injuries: $235,840
Filed: 5/16/11
Patterson Farm, LLC v. Agronomic Field Services, LLC and Allan Smith
Allegation: Failure to pay for trucks purchased and services rendered: $51,380.41
Filed: 5/27/11

GREENFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Veronica Willard v. Fisher Express Inc.
Allegation: Breach of partnership conversion: $25,000
Filed: 5/27/11

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Concrete Services Inc. v. Bruschi Brothers Inc., et al
Allegation: Breach of contract and unfair and deceptive trade practices: $6,161.52
Filed: 5/6/11

Barbara Ostrowski v. Robert S. Wool, M.D. and Women’s Health Group of Western Mass. Inc.
Allegation: Medical malpractice: $80,000
Filed: 5/5/11
Ted Ondrick Co., LLC v. Green River Development, LLC and John Christopher
Allegation: Non-payment of paving services rendered: $25,350.30
Filed: 5/6/11

HOLYOKE DISTRICT COURT
Falcetti & Clark Electrical Supply v. Specialty Loose Leaf Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of electrical services supplied: $5,000
Filed: 4/22/11

PALMER DISTRICT COURT
Irene Spring v. Mass. Central Railroad Corp.
Allegation: While traveling in a car under a train-track overpass, part of the railroad support structure fell and struck the plaintiff’s vehicle: $9,576.33
Filed: 5/24/11

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Heritage Electric Inc. v. Lexington Development
Allegation: Non-payment of electric labor and materials: $5,470
Filed: 5/2/11

Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. NIHEN Construction Co. Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment on two workers’ compensation policies: $16,925.34
Filed: 5/16/11

Nassau Lens Co. Inc. v. Occhali Eye Boutique, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $10,115.11
Filed: 4/11/11

The MVA for Rehabilitation v. Commerce Insurance Co.
Allegation: Denial of payment for medical bills: $3,870.52
Filed: 4/18/11

Departments Picture This

Hoop City Jazz & Art Festival

Large crowds descended on Court Square July 9-11 for the Hampden Bank Hoop City Jazz & Art Festival (HCJAF). The annual event featured a number of jazz performers, art vendors, an array of fine food, and general merriment.
Photography by Ed Cohen

From left, Kari Njiiri of WFCR; Adrienne Osborn, director of Artist Relations for the HCJAF; Ron Ancrum, president of the Community Foundation of Western Mass. and advisory board member for the HCJAF; John Osborn, president and founder of the festival; Amy Scribner, assistant vice president and associate director of Marketing for Hampden Bank; Richard DeBonis, senior vice president and director of Marketing for Hampden Bank; and Evan Plotkin, president of NAI Plotkin.

The scene in Court Square.

Vincent Ingala lights things up on his saxophone.

Pancho Sanchez performs with his Latin Jazz Band.

Hampden Bank employees John Mirkin, Amy Scribner, Donna Abelli, Cindy Bartels, and Debbie Andrews.

The scene on Friday night.

The scene in front of the stage.

Dawn Creighton, with her daughters, Caleigh (left) and Mackenzie.

Big Band Celebration

Hundreds of area residents flocked to the green at Springfield Technical Community College on July 9 for what was called a “Poppin’ Big Band Celebration.” The evening of music and dance was a salute to Benny Goodman’s 1943 concert at the Springfield Armory, much of which was later transformed into STCC after the facility closed in 1966. The event featured the Memories Big Band Sound, a USO Retro Show featuring two dance troupes, Jitterbug Dancers of Chicopee, and Small Planet Dancers of Westfield, and a performance by the U.S. Northeast Navy Pops Band.
Photography by Jim Langone

Big Band Celebration

The scene from the audience, with the Armory Museum in the background.

The Memories Big Band Sound performs.

The Small Planet Dancers mug for the camera.

Audience members take to the dance floor.

Let’s Make a Deal

Commercial Real Estate Sections

A chart of area real-estate brokers

CommercialRealEstateBrokers BW0711b

For Sale, for Lease

Commercial Real Estate Sections

A listing of available commercial properties

7.11b.reLISTINGS

What’s in Store for the Westinghouse Site?

Commercial Real Estate Sections

O’Connell Development Envisions Mix of Uses for Sprawling Complex

The former Westinghouse Electronics complex in East Springfield was slated for redevelopment into a large retail Mall, with perhaps two dozen stores, but then the recession sent that sector into a deep tailspin and eventually scuttled those plans. The O’Connell Development Group, creator of Holyoke Crossing in Holyoke, among other area retail complexes, acquired the property last fall, and is advancing plans for a mixed-use facility — although there is uncertainty about what that mix might entail.

As he talked about the sprawling former Westinghouse Electric manufacturing complex off Page Boulevard in East Springfield, and the prospects for redeveloping it, Andrew Crystal drew a number of comparisons to another project orchestrated by the Holyoke-based O’Connell Development Group, which he serves as vice president.
That would be the transformation of the former H.B. Smith boiler plant in the center of Westfield into a massive Stop & Shop supermarket and accompanying parking lot.
“That was a large industrial site that was demolished, cleaned up environmentally, and then turned into a retail location,” said Crystal, adding that this is the plan for the Westinghouse site, located just off I-291, as well. Actually, it’s been the plan for some time, and the fact that the 40 or so acres in question are still home to several buildings in the process of being razed points up a big difference between this initiative and the one in Westfield.
The H.B. Smith project unfolded in 1997, when the economy was humming and most major retailers were in an aggressive expansion mode. A planned transformation of the Westinghouse site into a $45 million retail complex with a mix of stores, undertaken by Newton-based Packard Development, was put on the drawing board more than three years ago, or just before the start of the worst recession in 80 years.
That downturn prompted the closing of thousands of retail establishments across the country and back-burnered a number of projects like the Westinghouse endeavor, said Crystal, adding that, while the retail sector is still reeling from the downturn in many respects, that segment of the economy is expected to eventually recover. Meanwhile, the Westinghouse complex has that most precious of real-estate qualities — location.
These factors and others prompted O’Connell Development, one of the O’Connell companies, to acquire the complex for $4.2 million last November and quickly commence with the process of razing the many buildings and cleaning up environmental contamination.

Andrew Crystal says retail is one promising possibility for the site, although the sector isn’t as healthy as it once was.

“We think the site has a lot of potential, and clearly some of that is for retail uses,” he said, “because it is within a fairly dense residential area and has such easy and immediate access to 291. That access accounts for much of the site’s appeal, but there’s also the visibility from the highway.”
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at the prospects for the Westinghouse property, identified as one of the key economic-development priorities in the City of Homes and a big piece of the ongoing revitalization puzzle.

Back to the Future
In its heydey during World War II, the Westinghouse Electric complex, opened in 1915, employed as many as 7,000 people in the manufacture of white goods and other products. The plant was part of a large industrial corridor where Rolls-Royces were once assembled and Smith & Wesson later became a huge part of the landscape.
The Westinghouse operation eventually wound down in 1970, and since then the cluster of buildings has become home to a number of warehousing and distribution tenants, said Crystal, adding that the site has long been considered an attractive location for a retail center, given its size and location only a few hundred yards from the East Springfield exit off I-291.
And in early 2008, Packard Development, a subsidiary of New England Development, which has developed a slew of retail centers across the Northeast, including several in Eastern Mass., put plans on the table for such a center, one that would be home to perhaps two dozen stores and a total of 450,000 square feet of retail. Formal plans were submitted, an environmental impact report was filed with the state (addressing, among other things, traffic issues), and the company met several times with neighborhood residents to hear and address their concerns.
All systems appeared go, but then … the recession hit, and the East Springfield project, like many planned retail developments, was first delayed and then scrapped.
“New England Development is a good firm, and they had a pretty aggressive development plan — they just got caught by the recession,” said Crystal. “It was a time when even the big national retailers were pulling back, and some didn’t make it through the recession; there were many casualties.”
But O’Connell saw enough potential in the property to make that $4 million roll of the dice last fall, said Crystal, adding that he considers this property to be a gamble well worth taking, considering the site’s size, location, and potential for a number of possible uses.
Crystal told BusinessWest that demolition will likely be concluded by the end of this year, clearing the way for what he calls mixed-use development, “although, at this point, we’re just not sure what that mix of uses is or would be.”
The property is zoned commercial, he continued, adding that this designation doesn’t permit some specific uses, such as a large distribution center, but does allow almost all others.
Retail is certainly at or near the top in terms of preferred uses, he said, adding that there is a recognized need for more retail in that part of the region, and dense population centers within a few miles of the site that could be attractive to major players in the industry.
But retail is still in a relative holding pattern overall as a sluggish recovery from the downturn continues, and Crystal acknowledged that many questions remain about when and to what degree the sector will bounce back.
“Retail is doing better than it was a year or two ago, certainly,” he said, “but it’s not like it was five years ago, and it likely never will be again. There are fewer national retail tenants now — the bankruptcy filings provide ample evidence of that — and the sector is still making its way back. Things are better, and consumer confidence has improved tremendously, but it’s certainly not like it was.”
The O’Connell Development Group has extensive experience in retail development, with several such projects in its portfolio, including the Westfield Stop & Shop initiative; Holyoke Crossing, its best-known retail effort, and one that has certainly felt the impact of the downturn; the Bernie’s store across Whiting Farms Road from Holyoke Crossing; and several CVS locations across the region.
Meanwhile, the company continues its work to redevelop the former Atlas Copco property just a few blocks from Holyoke Crossing and the Holyoke Mall into a retail facility; it is currently being used for distribution.
But there are several other potential uses for the Westinghouse site, said Crystal, listing everything from office space to health care services; from entertainment venues to a satellite post office. All are permissible uses under the zoning, and all are viable alternatives given the location just off the highway.
In the meantime, O’Connell is working to lease out space in the Westinghouse office facility fronting Page Boulevard, which is not slated for demolition at this time. Approximately 30,000 square feet across two floors is leaseable, said Crystal, adding that the company is still gauging demand for that space while deciding its ultimate future.
Marketing of the site will commence once O’Connell has a firmer grasp of just what it wants to do with the location and what the market will bear, said Crystal, adding that the site simply has too much going for it to remain dormant for long.
“You just don’t find close to 40 acres in an urban environment like this,” he said, “that has such close proximity to the highway and such high visibility from the highway.”

The Bottom Line
The H.B. Smith project succeeded in changing the look and feel of downtown Westfield. It removed a decaying, contaminated factory complex and brought retail — and some vibrancy — to the downtown.
Whether history will repeat itself in East Springfield remains to seen, but Crystal is optimistic that another location known mostly for what transpired in the past will have a different, and quite compelling, future.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

From the Ground Up

Construction Sections

A listing of the region’s home builders

HomeBuilders BW0711b

Blueprint for Success

ArchitectureFirms BW0711b

Architecture Sections

A chart of area architecture firms

A Study in Perseverance

Architecture Sections

At Studio One, Knocked Down Doesn’t Mean Knocked Out

Greg Zorzi (right, with Chris Novelli) says it was important to get back to work after the tornado, for the sake of not just ongoing projects, but also Studio One employees.

When remembering the events that took place on June 1 and 2, Greg Zorzi paused and looked out the window onto the streetscape below in downtown Springfield, and when he began to talk again, his words were shaken, yet strong and clear.
Like many in Springfield and beyond, the historic tornado changed Zorzi’s world in a single day. The stately Civil War-era brick block known as South Commons that his parents, the original Studio One architects, had renovated and owned was badly damaged one day, then demolished the next. Among several other businesses were the offices of Studio One architects and planners, as well as the Zorzi home.
Sitting in the offices that became the latest headquarters for this architectural firm that has been in existence in Springfield since 1974, he said that, while the business was dealt a great blow both physically and spiritually, the show must go on.
“I strongly believe in the expression that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he said, smiling. “We had a city water main break about 10 years ago down there, and we were flooded. We thought that was bad!
“But not only was it important for us to get back to work, to get to the projects that we had been working on right after the tornado hit,” he continued, “I’m responsible to all these people who work here. That is what kicked in. We can’t focus on the negative; we have to move forward.”
Talking about what has driven Studio One since the earliest days of the firm, back when his parents, Peter and Melinda Zorzi, were principals, he said that one of the greatest factors in their strength is wrapped in one word, endurance. “You need a tremendous amount of drive to succeed in this business.”
It’s not just all sweat that makes a good architect, he went on. “What we do, and what my father taught me from an early age, was to build goodwill with clients. That means going the extra mile, never mind whether something is an additional service or not. That’s the best advice I ever got. And because of that, folks call us back.”
Very soon after their offices were destroyed, Studio One relocated to 115 State St., and it was here that Zorzi spoke to BusinessWest. In a suite of rooms that doesn’t have the appearance of a makeshift space created on the quick, Zorzi told the story of how he came to be where he is today.
Glossy images of the buildings his firm has designed over the years line the walls, and with that backdrop, he said that the South Commons location may have been part of the firm’s identity — having been its home for over 25 years — but there’s a silver lining somewhere in that story, somehow. It’s clear that the endurance he talks about will give Studio One a firm footing to set forth on its next endeavor (more on that later), to be started this fall.

Historic Preservation
A solid book of work in Studio One’s portfolio comes from multi-family housing and SRO (single-room occupancy) projects, and this goes back to the days when Greg’s father Peter was at the helm. Projects have ranged from luxury condo units to the redevelopment of historic properties for housing in Westfield, with a range that covers most of Southern New England.
The firm was one of the businesses instrumental in the revitalization of the historic Matoon Street area in Springfield. Years later, historically sensitive new construction took place in that district, and that, Zorzi said, is one area where his firm excels.
Reiterating the notion of goodwill that he mentioned earlier, he said this has been a great asset not just for his clients, but for his business as well. With many projects over the years funded by HUD money, sometimes going the extra mile meant a repeat customer — many times over.

South Commons, pre-tornado, was Studio One’s home for more than 25 years.

“One of the distinctions of our firm is that we are very willing to work up front with our clients, especially with those HUD projects,” he said. “They might need assistance with funding, or any amount of assistance in getting their project off the ground. Oftentimes we’re not paid a nickel until the construction documents are 100% done. Then we receive DPG [demonstration program grant] monies from HUD — and then we’re paid. We’re way out there though from the start.”
Repeat customers, from HAP Inc. to Domus in Westfield to the Sisters of Saint Joseph, have been a significant component to how Zorzi’s firm has kept busy and how, unlike other firms its size, it has never had to downsize in staff. “Again, from working with my father, this is how I learned how to build a business,” he said.
With his father in a strong leadership role from the start, Zorzi laughed when talking about succession issues when he became president. While Peter is still active in the firm — “he knows so many people in the industry; he’s an incredible asset, and we still get work from his numerous contacts” — it was natural for the child who started running errands at the age of 10 to eventually take over someday.
After graduating from Boston Architectural College in the 1980s, Zorzi went to work for a large firm in the Hub. It was good experience, he said, but he knew he wanted to return to a smaller-sized shop.
“I was still working there,” he remembered, “when I asked my dad one day at a wedding, ‘are you going to ask me to join the firm or not?’ His response was, ‘I thought you were happy in Boston!’ and then, ‘of course!’”

Student Loans
There are many events that can shape the history of a business. While the events that took place after the tornado are a significant obstacle, Zorzi firmly said that this is a hurdle, but not a dead end.
His comments were carefully thought out, and it’s clear there’s a lot of hurt still there. But he repeated again that one word as an overarching answer to all of what transpired: “endurance.”
“When the city demolished South Commons, we were all greatly saddened,” he said. “I thought the city’s approach was heavy handed and capricious, and not thought out. Those buildings were secured. When we found that block in 1980, it was in worse shape than what happened by the tornado — the section of wall that was damaged and knocked down was a non-load-bearing wall.
“But the worst part,” he continued, “is that we’re licensed architects, and we weren’t even consulted on the fate of those buildings. We were told by City Hall that FEMA was calling the shots, but we later found out that was wrong, that the building commission was. No question in my mind, those buildings on the National Register of Historic Places could have been saved. It’s hurtful. I think the city has made some grave errors in judgment, and we’re calling them out on that.”
Then he stood up from the desk and called in his project manager, Chris Novelli. “There might be a good ending to this story after all,” Zorzi said.
It will start this fall, as Novelli teaches a graduate-level seminar in the Architecture + Design Department at UMass Amherst, to be held in Court Square. “It’s going to be a South End reconstruction studio,” Novelli said. “It’s still in the planning stages at this point for scope and focus. And this is not going to be a purely tornado-based program, but rather taking a broader-based look at the South End — the history of it, what problems exist, and how to create development opportunities.
“I think the biggest goal is that the students learn something,” he continued. “But I personally hope that some of these ideas that the students will eventually come up with will help the city leaders and planners see potential for what they can do, rather than trying to get in any developer who is just willing to do anything there.”
Zorzi added that he would like to see business and civic leaders engaged in the session as well, to act as ‘clients’ of a sort for the students’ projects.
“This is about healing. Even if it’s just a vision for what can be, it’s a healing process,” Zorzi said. He was referring specifically to the UMass program, but it was clear that this architectural firm’s president was also thinking about Studio One, and the city he has called home most of his life.

Showcasing Athletes — and the Region

Organizers of the upcoming Maccabi Games

The Maccabi Games Will Bring the World to Springfield

Organizers of the upcoming Maccabi Games, from left: Francis Mirkin; Stuart Greene; Jeff Grodsky, vice president of the Harry Grodsky & Co.; and Michael Paysnick.

The digital display in the lobby of the Springfield Jewish Community Center (SJCC) has been counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds to the start of the Maccabi Games since early this year.
What the current numbers translate to is crunch time, said Michael Paysnick, executive director of the center, noting that the kickoff ceremonies on Aug. 14 are virtually right around the corner. Most all of the really hard work, from recruiting sponsors to finding host parents (although some still need to be secured) to arranging security for the estimated 900 athletes (ages 12-16), 250 coaches and delegates, and 5,000 spectators, has been handled, “and now we’re down to the fine details.”
And they are what ultimately add up to a successful week (Aug. 14-19), said Paysnick, adding that the final pieces are coming into a place for an event that truly brings the world to Western Mass.
Indeed, athletes from across the country and several foreign nations, including Israel, Canada, and Mexico, will descend on the region in mid-August for an event that mirrors the Olympics in many ways, starting with elaborate opening ceremonies at the MassMutual Center, said Francis Mirkin, an attorney with the Springfield-based firm Bacon Wilson and co-chairman of the Games.
“Like the Olympics, the Maccabi Games bring people together from across the country and other nations,” he explained. “They compete against each other, but they also learn from each other and share ideas and memories. It’s a learning and growing experience as much as it is an athletic competition.”
The games mirror the Olympics in another respect as well: putting them on is a huge undertaking, a challenging test for a region and its hospitality infrastructure, but with rewards there as well.
Indeed, while the games are, at their core, a series of athletic competitions with medals for the top performers, said Mirkin, they have become an economic boon for the hosting region and, in the case of Springfield, which hosted the games before, in 1992, a showcase of its tourism facilities, communities, colleges, and universities, many of which will host sporting events, and the business community as well.
“In many ways, this region is perfect for the games,” Mirkin explained. “It has the strong support network and communities with hundreds of willing host families. But it also has the colleges, the facilities, such as those at the MassMutual Center, and the attractions like Six Flags and the Basketball Hall of Fame. And while the games have benefited from coming here, this region has benefited from being host.”
For this issue, BusinessWest goes behind the scenes as the region again prepares to host nearly 900 young Jewish athletes and create another of those learning experiences Mirkin described.

Winning Proposition
Stuart Greene, director of Health & Physical Education at the SJCC, coordinated the games when they came to Springfield in 1992, and he has that assignment again this year.
He brings to the job nearly two decades of experience with the games, starting in 1992, when he took a delegation from the SJCC to its first Maccabi event in Boston. Since then, he’s led subsequent delegations as they’ve competed in Denver, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Diego, and other cities.
The Maccabi movement was started in 1895, but it was not until 1932, when the first official Maccabiah Games — originally conceived by Yosef Yekutieli, a 15-year-old inspired by the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games — were held in Israel. And it wasn’t until 1982 that the first games were staged in North America, in Memphis.
Like Mirkin, Greene said the games represent much more than a chance to compete in sports ranging from basketball, soccer, and volleyball on the team level to tennis, swimming, golf, and track and field at the individual level — although that’s certainly a big part of it.
“It’s a chance to see other places, meet lots of new people, forge friendships, compete, and learn,” he said. “It’s a rewarding experience on so many levels.”
The same can be said of the art and science of hosting the games, he continued, adding that Springfield and Philadelphia stepped forward to co-stage the event (it’s usually held in several venues each year) when many other cities were simply unable to, due in large part to a still-sluggish economy.
The work actually began more than a year ago, when the host cities were announced, said Paysnick, and it will continue until long after the countdown is officially over and even after the athletes and coaches have gone home.
There is a virtual mountain of logistics involved, said Paysnick, adding that perhaps the most challenging is finding host families for the athletes. That work continues even in the final weeks, he said, adding that additional beds are still being sought.
But there are myriad other details to be worked out, he continued, from the securing of venues for the various athletic events to the recruitment of hundreds of volunteers; from security arrangements (which are not as elaborate as they were in 2002, only months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but are still comprehensive) to coordination of transportation for all those athletes.
In all, 33 delegations will descend on Springfield and the surrounding region. In addition to three international teams, there will be squads representing neighborhoods of big cities (Bensonhurst in New York and North Miami Beach, for example) and entire cities, including Hartford, Houston, Chicago, San Antonio, and Jacksonville.
They will be competing in events staged at several area colleges and facilities, including the MassMutual Center, Springfield College, American International College, Holyoke Community College, several area golf courses, and other venues.
The total budget for the SJCC games is approaching $1 million, and is covered through contributions, in cash and in-kind donations, from a host of individuals and corporate sponsors. That latter list includes PeoplesBank, Big Y, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Harry Grodsky & Co., Bacon Wilson, Williams Distributing, and many others.
“It’s a huge undertaking that wouldn’t be possible without the donations of time, money, and energy from many people and businesses,” said Mirkin.

Let the Games Begin
As the numbers get smaller on the digital display at the SJCC, the anticipation builds for an event that will showcase not only young athletes, but Western Mass. and its proficiency at staging large, and ultimately successful, events.
In that respect, there will be winners on many levels as these games are played out in mid-August, and rewards for the all those participated — and those who were part of the effort to bring the event back to Greater Springfield.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Doing Business in: Longmeadow

Small Specialty Shops Thrive in This Affluent Town

Lois Brooke says moving her store to Longmeadow was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Fifteen years ago, Lois Brooke started a business named Floral Fantasies and erected a building on Memorial Drive in West Springfield to house the fresh and silk flower arrangements and gift items she carries.
Although the shop was doing well, when she heard that florist William Burrows was retiring and the storefront in the Longmeadow Shops that he occupied was available, she moved her business there because she said the opportunity was too good to pass up.
“I thought it was a great walk-in location. It is a nice community, and a lot of my customers come from Longmeadow, Hampden, and Wilbraham, so I figured it would be more convenient for them,” Brooke explained.
Her shop carries a wide variety of unique gift items that range from fanciful figurines to sea-glass jewelry, specialty chocolate, high-end designer purses, and unusual silver and crystal.
“People come to the Longmeadow Shops looking for something different,” she said, adding that some are seeking bridal or shower gifts and want something more unique and memorable than what couples have registered for.
After moving to Longmeadow, Brooke discovered another bonus: a close-knit community of business owners who work together to support one another. During prom season, she puts roses in a nearby clothing store as promgoers rent tuxedos there, and both businesses tell their customers about each other’s offerings.
Brooke has also carried on the tradition started by Burrows of decorating the plaza during the holiday season, and provides free flowers each week to Starbucks and other stores, which brings new customers to her store.
When it comes to the world of business, Longmeadow is small, and its business space is fairly limited. The majority of storefronts are owned by people who specialize in high-end goods at retail shops, or who operate specialty restaurants, most of which are located in a triangle that includes the Longmeadow Shops on Bliss Road, the Big Y plaza, and Williams Place across the street, which rents office space as well.
There are also a number of small retail establishments in a strip along the Enfield line in the Armata’s supermarket plaza area and at two other plazas at the junction of Shaker and Maple roads. Office space also exists in a building at 1200 Converse St., and many doctors and dentists occupy two buildings on Dwight Road.
“Longmeadow is a small community, but that is the benefit of doing business there,” said Sarah Tsitso, executive director of the East of the River Chamber of Commerce, adding that residents like to patronize community businesses. “The town has a little bit of everything, from banks to clothing shops, along with great public schools.”

Small Wonder
Longmeadow boasts a single tax rate, and Tsitso said the Board of Selectmen works continuously with the chamber to ensure that Longmeadow remains a good place to own and operate a business.
The town sits on the Connecticut line and is easily accessible from Route 5, which runs directly through it via Longmeadow Street, where it connects to Interstate 91 North.
“Longmeadow also has a college in its midst, so it draws parents and a large crowd of continuing-education students from all over the region,” Tsitso said, referring to Bay Path College on Longmeadow Street. “In addition, it has two wonderful golf courses with banquet facilities.”
Town Manager Robin Crosby told BusinessWest that the community is well-informed, and has a higher per-capita income than the average earned by residents in Western Mass. as a region.
“The people here can afford services and are willing to pay for them; plus, the town is very pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly,” she said. “The Longmeadow Shops are located right next to the high school and athletic fields, which makes it easy for families to shop there.”
Walter Gunn agrees. “We are a destination spot because the stores here are upscale,” said the Planning Board chairman. “We also have a lot of professional services and small businesses that include engineers, lawyers, and real-estate agents. Longmeadow doesn’t have an industrial park, and there is no zoning for one. Professional and retail is what the town is all about, and the shops and stores cater to an affluent population. The Longmeadow Shops attract people from out of town. They are a destination, and it’s a safe and secure place for people to shop.”
Over the past year, there have been a number of changes with regard to the town’s retail landscape, and several storefronts have vacated, but Crosby said they fill in quickly.
Camile Hannoush, who co-owns Hannoush Jewelers with his family, says they opened their third Gift-ology store in town last fall. The chain now has dozens of stores across Western Mass. and beyond.
Hannoush said the company chose the Longmeadow Shops because it is a great market for the type of product it carries. “We have handmade and very unique gift items such as pillows from different parts of the country, handmade blown glass which is actually wall art, and handmade purses,” he said, naming several exclusive lines. “Gift boutiques have done very well in Longmeadow because of the demographics. There is a demand for that type of product in town, and I feel that customers who go there want something that other stores don’t offer.”
Hannoush told BusinessWest that, although its Springfield store does well, the company doesn’t have to do as much target marketing in Longmeadow because the location attracts clients interested in its merchandise. “It’s not like going to a mall. The shops here are a destination and a retail mecca with a lot of beautiful co-tenants that we felt were a good fit,” he said. “It’s a great area that is convenient and a pretty place for people to go and shop. They feel comfortable there.”
Crosby said that feeling exists throughout the town, and small restaurants also do well. She cites the Iron Chef as an example. It serves Asian cuisine and opened in a small space on Shaker Road in the Armata’s plaza a number of years ago.
Joann Melikian and her brother, Ardy Iennaco, along with other family members, have been working since January to open a second Primo’s Pizza shop on Maple Road in Longmeadow. The family business will sit in a small strip mall across the street from the Iron Chef and next to a Chinese restaurant in the four-corner section of town on the Enfield border.
Primo’s does excellent business in its shop on Worthington Street in Springfield, Melikian said, but has had its eye on Longmeadow for more than seven years.
“We grew up in Longmeadow, and the whole family lives here, with the exception of my sister, who is in the military, and my brother Frank, who lives in East Longmeadow,” she said. “It’s a small community, we know everyone, we can service more towns with takeout in Longmeadow, and there are only a few other pizza shops in town.” She added that the type of pizza they make will be new to the town because it is baked in old-style ovens.

Location, Location, Location
The family has been looking for an appropriate location in town for years, and when Iennaco discovered that the owner of the Maple Street location would allow them to open a pizza business there, he was thrilled. “I’ve wanted to be in this spot for seven years because I knew it will be a home run,” he said. “There is a steady flow of traffic, and there are two schools nearby,” he added, explaining that their operation will offer takeout and meals that will feed three to eight people.
“It is a great economic opportunity,” Melikian agreed. “We’re a family-oriented business and don’t have a big staff. This is small and is exactly what we were looking for. We grew up here and think people need the opportunity to have old-style, homemade pizza.”
There are many business owners in Longmeadow expressing similar sentiments. Indeed, while the products vary — from flowers to jewelry to pizza — everyone seems to be hitting home runs.

Opinion

Opinion

What’s Behind the State’s ‘Big Shrink’

Massachusetts has lagged behind the rest of the country in job creation since the 2001 recession. While the rest of the country grew, we shrank.
Two interlocking factors explain a significant portion of our stagnation — Massachusetts is failing to create new businesses at the same rate it did in the ’90s, and the new businesses we manage to create are much smaller in size. The Pioneer Institute’s latest study, “The Big Shrink,” seeks to understand how the dynamics of firm size have changed.
Average establishment size dropped from 16 employees in 1990 to 9.7 employees by 2007. This decline has several causes. Large establishments in Massachusetts are disappearing, particularly branches of more than 100 people. Headquarters have actually grown in average firm size over the period studied. Unfortunately, we lost an astounding 5,000 of them from 1990 to 2007.
The most important changes have occurred at stand-alone, single-location firms that make up the vast majority of establishments in the state. The number of stand-alone businesses has increased by almost 150,000 establishments over the 17-year period. But most of that growth is from single-person or non-employer service companies, particular business services. That has resulted in a drop of average firm size at stand-alone companies from 8.38 employees to 5.48.
To be sure, small businesses are crucial to the economy, and we should support them. There’s also a case to be made that high-value-added service businesses are a durable source of employment that is strongly resistant to outsourcing. But a job-creation dynamic that results in fewer, smaller businesses is incompatible with long-term economic growth.
What is precluding Massachusetts establishments from growing and, in the process, hiring more people? Given that firm shrinkage is pervasive across industries, the answer may lie in the general business environment, as opposed to our current economic-development focus on specific industry niches. Put simply, we need a broad-based effort to address those factors that make the costs of growing and hiring outweigh the benefits. These costs include taxes, unemployment-insurance charges, and the legal and regulatory environments, to name a few factors other studies have highlighted. Massachusetts regularly falls below average in studies that rank states based on their tax and regulatory environments.
Relative to the rest of the U.S., Massachusetts’ inability, long-term, to grow jobs suggests that our economic policies are not effective. To create jobs requires that Massachusetts dramatically increase its rate of business creation and reverse the firm-size trend. Reigniting the Bay State’s job engine will require a systematic approach that takes into account the real dynamics of employment in this state and makes the Commonwealth an attractive place to start and grow businesses.

John Friar is the Pioneer Institute’s senior fellow on Jobs and the Economy and executive professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration.

Editorial

Opinion

Rebuilding: the Region’s Big Challenge

It’s been nearly seven weeks since the tornadoes touched down in Western Mass. In most all respects, people have stopped talking about what transpired that day — it’s now a distant, yet still-fascinating memory for many — and are instead focused on the future, which is as it should be.
As with any disaster, there is an immediate response to the calamity, a stage in which this region shined on many levels, with people and institutions pitching in and stepping up in ways that can only be described with the word inspiring. Now comes the next phases, or ‘r-words,’ with respect to an event of this magnitude — recovery and rebuilding — and with these steps, the region must shine just as brightly.
In Springfield, matters are off to a very promising start with the appointment of the two leaders of the rebuilding effort — Gerald Hayes and Nick Fyntrilakis — and strong hints about the game plan they intend to put in place.
Hayes, vice president of Administration and Finance at Westfield State University, is a natural choice for this project, with his strong background in economic development, urban revitalization, and long-term planning initiatives. In short, he knows how to get things done, and he’s long displayed an ability to work with others to reach stated goals. Fyntrilakis, meanwhile, is a rising star in Springfield development and revitalization efforts, having taken a leadership role in the State Street Corridor Initiative and other projects to bring vibrancy to the city’s central business district and other neighborhoods. Like Hayes, he’s shown an ability to take a project from the drawing board to reality.
But neither has anything quite like a tornado rebuilding effort on his résumé, so this will be an exciting new challenge to which they will certainly lend energy, determination, and imagination.
The roadmap is still being developed, but the broad plan moving forward is to hire a master planner to create a blueprint for recovery and rebuilding, garner critical feedback from all relevant constituencies in the drafting of that master plan, and then effectively execute what’s been put down on paper. All this will take time, resilience, and large amounts of money that currently don’t exist and must be found, which might be the most difficult part of this assignment.
But it all starts with a plan, and for that, we suggest that all those involved aim extremely high and resolve never to settle for anything second-rate because something better might be too difficult or too expensive to pursue.
We’ve said this many times before, as have countless others, but it bears repeating. Rebuilding from the tornado will be an extreme challenge, in part because this region has never experienced anything like this, but it is also a tremendous opportunity to make things better than they were on May 31. Much better. That may sound a little corny, but it’s absolutely true, and it must be the mindset.
We can make the homes that were damaged or destroyed greener and more fuel-efficient as we rebuild; we can take already-challenged neighborhoods and make them places businesses will want to invest in and make their homes. We can make the South End a model for modern urban renewal.
None of this will happen quickly or easily, but the opportunity is there to do something meaningful, something historic — if we take the energy and creativity that was applied to the tornado response and apply it to the long-term process of rebuilding in Springfield, West Springfield, Westfield, Monson, and every other community where the tornadoes touched down.

A Profile Update

Mike Matty’s recent view from the summit.

Reaching Everest’s Summit Was a Physical and Mental Test

Mike Matty displays the St. Germain flag as he poses at the roof of the world.

Editor’s Note: In March, BusinessWest profiled St. Germain Investments President Mike Matty, focusing mostly on his upcoming attempt to summit Mount Everest and thus join a very exclusive club — the one consisting of individuals who have scaled the highest peak on each of the seven continents. Matty is now a proud member of that fraternity, although the Everest climb challenged him in every way possible. Here’s a quick update.

Mike Matty had heard countless times before he left for Nepal that scaling Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, is every bit as much a mental challenge as it is a physical test — and maybe moreso.
He listened, and he thought he understood. But he didn’t fully comprehend that sentiment until he could finally take his crampons off for the last time, after safely descending back to base camp about a week after reaching the summit on May 13.
By the time his Sherpa guide had photographed him at the roof of the world just after 7 that morning (with a sign for his company in his hands), Matty had watched another member of his climbing team die on the mountain, seen another turn back soon after absorbing that fatality, climbed past the dead body of a member from another team as he neared the summit, and entertained seemingly countless thoughts about whether what he was doing was worth all the physical pain and mental anguish he was enduring.
“You reach a point where, after you’ve been sleeping in a tent on a glacier for a month, you say, ‘a cold beer and a warm bed seem pretty good at this point,’” he recalled. “You’re feeling so lousy, you’re wondering whether you’re going to be able to summit on summit day; you’re constantly questioning, questioning, questioning. That’s why it was so easy for that one guy to make a decision; he said, ‘I didn’t come here to die on this mountain,’ and he went home.”
When BusinessWest talked with Matty as part of its ongoing Profiles in Business series in late February, Everest was the lone obstacle remaining as he continued his quest to join a very exclusive club consisting of individuals who have scaled the highest peaks on all seven continents. Over the previous several years, he’d climbed, in succession, Kilimanjaro in Africa; Elbrus (Europe); Vinson (Antarctica); McKinley, or Demali (North America); Kosciuszko/Carstenz (Australia); and Asconcagua (South America). In the weeks leading up the Everest climb he was working out extensively with a team of trainers, preparing himself for a physical challenge that would eclipse anything he’d experienced in his climbing career to date.
But in retrospect, he says there was nothing that could have prepared him for the mental challenge he was to endure, especially the death of a fellow climber and the introspection that followed as the body was taken back down the mountain to what’s known as Base 2 for eventual transport back to the U.S. (In many cases, bodies are simply left on the mountain because it is too dangerous to remove them, but this fatality occurred at a height and in a place where recovery was possible.)
“That was the closest I came to heading home and saying ‘the heck with this,’” Matty told BusinessWest, adding that he was the closest person to the other climber when he died, and tried, along with others, to resuscitate him. “After sitting there and doing shots of adrenaline and epinephrine and CPR and other things for a good long while, I descended to Base 2 by myself, and the whole way down, for the next few hours, I’m thinking, ‘all right … how much do I want to keep going here?’”
But go on he did, eventually reaching the summit and fulfilling a promise he made to himself to leave there a photo of his brother, who died in his sleep last year at age 48, when he was a young child. Explaining the photo to his Sherpa, who lacked a firm grasp of the English language, was a stern challenge, but Matty believes he got the message across.
“I’m trying to tell him the story about this whole thing, and you can tell that he doesn’t understand the details,” he said, “but because of the emotions you’re going through, he gets the gist of it.”

Mike Matty’s recent view from the summit.

Looking back on the Everest climb, Matty said it was physically taxing in every way imaginable, and he credits the hard work he did in the months leading up the assault with enabling him to persevere, although he admits there were many times when he wondered if he could win the battle of attrition.
“You think you know what it’s going to be like, but the combination of being away from home, the unfamiliar foods, everyone has a bad cough, everybody feels like their ribs are cracked or they have pulled muscles in their chests, and so on … you’re feeling pretty beat up, and I lost 24 pounds while I was there,” he recalled. “Physically, your body’s deteriorating and your strength is declining; you’re just hoping you can get yourself up the mountain at some point.”
Watching someone die and later seeing the dead body of another climber were certainly traumatic experiences, but Matty said there were plenty of other episodes that made him question the wisdom of his decision to take on the world’s highest peak. Many came while crossing the famous Khumbu Icefall, which climbers have to traverse a half-dozen times while becoming acclimated to the altitude. The icefall, located at the head of the Khumbu Glacier, is found at the 18,000-foot mark, just above base camp, and is considered one of the most dangerous stages of the so-called South Col route to the summit, with large crevasses opening and closing with little warning and huge ice towers known to collapse suddenly.
“You see these mobile-home-size blocks of ice leaning in all directions,” he recalled. “One day, the line you’re clipping on to keep from sliding down the mountain if something happens goes under a block of ice at an 80-degree angle; the next day, it’s a 60-degree angle, and the next, it’s 45 degrees; you realize that this stuff is moving all day, every day, and you’ve got to walk right underneath it.
“Tomorrow, there’s a 40-foot-wide crevasse where there was none today, because suddenly, everything just split open,” he continued. “It’s a constantly changing thing, and you’ve got to go through there six times. It’s nervewracking … you’re walking through there every time thinking, ‘this could be it, this could be it.’”
Matty did some blogging of his experience, and one of the missives he sent was that no one who attempts Everest considers the fight won until they’re through the icefall one last time and back to base camp.
“It’s one thing to be there at the summit,” he said, noting that he had a full hour to take in that view and enjoy the moment. “But it’s quite another to be back down safely and done. That’s when you say, ‘yeah, all right, I climbed Everest.”
And once back down, he made the traditional visit to the Rum Doodle restaurant in Kathmandu. He signed the wall, as more than 4,000 had before him, including the first to make it to the top, Sir Edmund Hillary, who did in 1953.
When asked what he had for dinner, Matty said he couldn’t remember. “I just know there was a lot of beer.”

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Management

Columns Sections

Focus on Progress, Not Perfection Ditch Unreachable Expectations, Fear of Mistakes, and Excess Criticism

By MARTI MacGIBBON

Heather, a manager at a publishing company, prides herself on her extremely high standards, even jokingly referring to herself as a perfectionist, but she has difficulty meeting deadlines.
During brainstorming sessions with her staff, Heather yearns to unearth new discoveries and innovations, but dreads making even the smallest mistakes, putting a damper on creativity. She tends to take on only familiar challenges in order to guarantee that she will excel. Recently Heather noticed she has difficulty relating to and encouraging her subordinates. She longs to be able to inspire them, but finds she can see only flaws in their work. Since Heather is also self-critical, she is tense and rigid when embarking on new projects, putting a clamp on productivity.
Tyler’s office is down the hall from Heather’s, and she’s noticed how he and his staff consistently come up with innovative new concepts and complete projects before the deadline. Whenever a groundbreaking new endeavor is discussed, Tyler volunteers to take it on. His confidence is truly remarkable. In meetings, Tyler’s subordinates demonstrate self-assurance and an easy rapport with him. When Tyler’s staff turn in reports, the mood is upbeat, almost celebratory, even when they are only halfway to their project’s completion. Heather sees people leave Tyler’s office looking focused, empowered, and energized. She wonders how Tyler can appear to be so relaxed and happy and still be so productive.
Tyler’s advantage is that he focuses on progress, not perfection. Striving for perfection and rejecting anything less can become an obstacle to innovation, creativity, and satisfaction in the accomplishment of everyday tasks and goals. Focusing on progress will highlight the fact that everyday tasks and goals are actually baby steps on the way to achievement of the highest standards and accomplishments. While focusing on progress, we learn to enjoy the journey as well as the destination. French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire said, “Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.”
Here are six progress-oriented strategies you can use that will free you from excessive self-criticism and increase your creativity, satisfaction, and confidence.
There is really no such thing as perfection in life. Know that perfection is not an oasis — it’s a mirage! You’ll never arrive, because it simply isn’t there. Once you realize that everything in this universe is flawed, you can relax and focus on improvement and progress. You will find that, as your confidence builds, your freedom of thought increases. You now have lots of elbow room to take on new and exciting challenges.
Practice intelligent goal-setting. Determine your ultimate goal. Then set doable, measurable goals, at definite intervals on the journey, that you know you can reach. At each of these intervals you can measure progress, adjust your sights, and make changes if necessary. It’s easy to slip into a self-defeating pattern by setting inappropriate goals and standards. If you tell yourself you can accept only the utmost perfection in everything you do, you rob yourself of the joy that comes from celebrating each and every small accomplishment regardless of the result.
At the end of each day, take an inventory of anything and everything you have accomplished, and celebrate it. Progress is not exclusively linear. Be sure to include upbeat attitude, a positive thought process, kind words, and generous actions on your list. You most likely have gained character strengths, leadership skills, personal insights, and communication skills during any given day, week, or month at work. It’s a good idea to begin recognizing all of your accomplishments and gaining greater resolve from them.
There is real reward in enjoying the journey and accepting your work without judging it. Perfectionism often creates a cycle of procrastination — the standard is set so high that you find yourself overwhelmed and paralyzed at the outset. Exercise your non-judgmental attitude toward others as well, regarding everything around you as a work in progress.
Give yourself permission to grow and to embrace missteps. Some of the greatest discoveries were a result of blunders, or were learned by trial and error. If you stop making mistakes, you stop progressing and learning. Loosen up — value the process. You’ll find your creativity, productivity, and happiness will increase exponentially.
Never underplay your accomplishments. Banish self-talk such as, “well, it was OK, but anybody could’ve done that.” That sort of thinking, discounting the positive, can lead to anhedonia, the technical term for diminished ability to find joy and satisfaction in life. Instead, encourage yourself and others around you by recognizing the significance of smaller tasks as part of the ultimate goal. Muster your enthusiasm by visualizing the final result.
Try consistently putting these strategies into play, and you will be surprised as you exceed your own expectations. Constantly focus on progress and learn to have fun along the way. Celebrate each baby step. Pat yourself on the back: turn on the self-approval faucet and let the feeling of accomplishment wash over you. This isn’t complacency, this is stamina building.
Success in any endeavor takes time — it’s like a long-distance run. If you want to zoom across the finish line at the end of the course, then say goodbye to perfectionism’s unreachable expectations, fear of mistakes, and excessive criticism. Say hello to progress and begin embracing and celebrating it daily. Perfectionism is a deal breaker. Progress is a star maker.

Marti MacGibbon, CADC II, ACRPS, is a certified mental health professional, inspirational motivational speaker, veteran standup comic, author, and member of the National Speakers Assoc. Her memoir, Never Give In to Fear, is available on Amazon.com and through her Web site, www.nevergiveintofear.com.

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